A Party to Die For
by bequirk
Summary: Pepper Potts puts together an eclectic group of guests for a weekend party at Tony Stark's isolated mansion. When Dr. Erik Selvig, the guest of honor, is murdered, things take a grim turn, especially when they find out one of the guests is the murderer. With the police stuck in town due to weather, Pepper and her guests must investigate by themselves. No powers AU. Murder mystery.
1. Invitations and Arrivals

**This is my piece for the Marvel Big Bang, and as such I have 2 lovely people to thank: 1. My completely amazing beta, dysprositos, who went over draft after draft after draft of this without complaining (I did enough of that for the both of us) and titled this monster, and 2. The incredible taibhrigh, who made some awesome art to go along with this story. The link is on my profile, please do go and take a look. It's so, so incredible!**

**She also made the wonderful story cover for this, which you can see above!**

**A little background: this is an all-human, no powers AU. Hopefully everyone's backgrounds should become clear as you read, but if you have questions feel free to ask! I came up with a lot more backstory than I could use.**

**Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Betty/Bruce, Peggy/Steve, Jane/Thor, Darcy/Bucky.**

**I can't think of any warnings for this chapter, but this is a murder mystery, so expect a body soon.**

* * *

_Stark Industries_

_Tony Stark  
__requests the pleasure of your company  
__at a weekend party  
__and dinner  
__in honor of Dr. Erik Selvig  
__on Friday, the seventh of December  
__two thousand and twelve  
__at seven o'clock  
__through the afternoon  
__of Sunday, the ninth of December  
__Stark Mansion  
__1 Stark Drive  
__Starkton, NY__  
_

_R.S.V.P.  
__John Mann  
__(212) 987-5555  
__Travel suggestions will be made upon confirmation of attendance._

* * *

"Tony!" Virginia 'Pepper' Potts called, walking into his workshop. "My secretary just sent out the invitations for your weekend party."

"My what?" Tony Stark slid out from under the car he was working on and got to his feet to give his assistant slash girlfriend an incredulous look.

Patiently, Pepper said, "Your weekend party being held in honor of Dr. Selvig. Remember, he just signed his contract with us? To work on developing the energy source your father began?"

"I've already got the arc reactors, what more do we need?"

Pepper sighed. "We've been through this, Tony. The Tesseract is a great potential source of energy for weapons, and the government is very interested in utilizing it. He's already signed his contract, weren't you listening?"

"He's a physicist, right?" Tony rubbed at a grease spot on his arm with a rag.

"Yes, Tony. An astrophysicist."

"Because the Tesseract's a space rock."

That wasn't a question, but Pepper replied anyway. "Yes, Tony. Exactly like you and R&D decided you needed. An astrophysicist to head up the team studying the 'space rock.' Now, here is the potential guest list," she flicked a document from the tablet in her hands to his workstation, "And I'll let you know the final group once everyone's replied. Oh, you asked to invite Rhodey yourself, please do that or I will. And if I have to do it for you, I'll attach those pictures. You know the ones."

"_Those_ pictures? Pep, you're evil. You must have horns under that hair." Tony took a couple steps towards her as if to check; she retreated, holding her tablet up as a shield. Ordinarily she wouldn't mind clowning around with Tony, but not when he was dirty like this and she was due at a meeting in thirty minutes.

"Okay, fine, I'll call Rhodey. JARVIS, call Rhodey. Look, I'm calling Rhodey! No pictures!"

"Will that be all, Mr. Stark?"

"No kiss?"

She looked him up and down pointedly, her gaze lingering on the grease spots covering his clothing and arms.

"Guess that's a no. Then that will be all, Ms. Potts."

"Good. I'll just be running your company if you need me." She left, and Tony dropped back to the ground.

"Sir, your call is going to Colonel Rhodes's voicemail. Shall I leave a message?"

"Yeah, tell Rhodey to call me ASAP."

"Yes, sir."

Tony slid back under his car and returned to work.

* * *

His workstation chimed that evening as Tony was scarfing down a pizza for dinner with one hand and manipulating a blueprint with the other. He had to get this done before Pepper came over, maybe grab a shower first, too.

The display showed a picture of Lieutenant Colonel James Rhodes, U.S. Air Force. Grinning around his mouthful of pizza, Tony accepted the video call.

"Rhodey!" he forced out, spitting some of his pizza through the holographic display.

"Tony. To what do I owe this pleasure?" Rhodes was stern, serious. He'd had a long day at work and dealing with Tony was not on his list of things he wanted to be doing with his evening.

Tony waved a hand to indicate Rhodes should wait, chewing furiously. Rhodes rolled his eyes at his friend's antics, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. At least pizza wasn't being spat at him any longer, though. Even though he knew it was just a projection, having pizza chunks flying at him was disconcerting. And good evidence of Tony's terrible manners.

Swallowing, Tony asked, "I apparently asked Pep to be the one to ask you. I'm, uh, having a party. All weekend. At my place upstate. You're invited, congratulations!"

"I'll have to ask about getting leave. Unless you need me there in an official capacity?"

"Nope, whatever. You can come be Rhodey the military man or Rhodey the best friend, I'll take either. Pep's put together this eclectic guest list, and I'm gonna be _so_ bored."

"Wow, Tony, 'eclectic,' really?"

"Hey, there were like...two English classes I didn't sleep through. I know big words. So, you'll come, right?"

"I have to check. Have JARVIS send me the details, 'cause I doubt you even know today's date, much less when this party is."

"Sure I do, it's, uh, today's November something."

"Yeah, Tony, it's November something. I'll get back to you once I have word. Good night."

"Night, Rhodey!"

Rhodes pressed the button to disconnect the call on his end, and Tony's screen went blank.

"J, take care of what he asked, all right?"

"Certainly, sir. Will there be anything else?"

"Nope, I got this." Reaching for another slice of pizza absentmindedly, Tony enlarged his blueprints again and returned to work.

* * *

"Jane!" Darcy Lewis yelled. "You've got mail!"

"Bring it here," Dr. Jane Foster said, looking up from the data sheet she had been studying, blinking.

She took the envelope from her assistant and opened it carefully, pulling out the embossed card. Reading it over quickly, she looked up at Darcy.

"Didn't Erik email and say that he was taking that contract with Stark Industries?"

"Yeah, he did. Why?"

"They're having a party for him at Tony Stark's mansion. I'm invited."

Darcy took the invitation (any stronger of a take-away, and it would be called 'snatching'), and read it over.

"Says here you can bring a guest. We aren't dating, but this sounds _so cool_. Can I come, Jane?"

"Does it say that?" Jane craned her neck to look at the card.

"Right there," Darcy pointed. "So can I? Please?"

"I don't see why not. Uh, should I call this man?"

"I think that's Ms. Potts's assistant. I recognize the name from the last time I was setting up one of your scientist playdates with some of their people. And I can call, if you want."

"Would you, please? These data from this morning are just fascinating." Already her attention was straying back to her computer.

Accustomed to this tunnel vision, Darcy just smiled. "Sure, Jane. I'll put it in your planner."

"Thanks."

Darcy left the room to attend to these tasks, and Jane turned back to her data sheet.

* * *

Returning to her apartment after work, Dr. Betty Ross picked up the mail that her absent-minded fiancé had left in the box. Flipping through it in the elevator, she came upon a heavy cream envelope, and was in the process of tucking the other mail under her arm so she could open it when the doors opened on her floor.

She unlocked the door of her apartment and let herself in, calling, "Bruce, I'm home!" and deposited the other mail on the kitchen counter to open the envelope.

Her fiancé, Dr. Bruce Banner, came around the corner and into the kitchen just as she finished reading the invitation.

She leaned towards him for a brief kiss, then asked, "You like Tony Stark, right?"

"I don't really know him, why?" Bruce wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in to read over her shoulder.

"I've been invited to a party he's hosting, and I can bring a guest. I don't have any other handsome men lying around, so you'll have to do."

"I'll do, huh?" His hands on her waist slid higher to tickle her ribs lightly. She giggled and pulled away, protesting.

Turning to face him, she looked him up and down critically before deciding, "You'll do. So, yes or no?"

"Sure, I'll go. I don't know Stark, but I do know Selvig."

"You do?"

"Met him a long time ago, before I met you."

"Oh, really? I don't think I've heard about that. Come on in here and tell me about it. It's too late to call and RSVP now, I'll call in the morning."

They went into their living room, talking.

* * *

Coming home from his therapy appointment, Steve Rogers grabbed the mail off the hall table where his roommate and best friend, James Barnes, 'Bucky,' had carelessly dropped it.

Sorting through it, he set aside the bills and junk mail, finding an unusually heavy envelope addressed to him.

Wandering further into their apartment, Steve slid a finger under the flap. As he approached the doorway of their living room, he purposefully made his steps heavier, letting Bucky know he was there.

Inside, Bucky started counting out loud, "Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, hundred," and as Steve walked in, he could see Bucky doing pushups.

"Heya, Buck," Steve said distractedly, reading the invitation. As he shifted the envelope from one hand to another, a handwritten note fell out and Bucky, who had gotten on his feet and come over to investigate, bent down and picked it up.

"Oooh, Steve," he teased. "The lady's asking you real nice to come."

"Give me that," Steve snatched the note away from Bucky and read it. It was from Ms. Potts, Tony Stark's assistant and girlfriend, personally asking him to come to her boyfriend's party.

Steve had met Ms. Potts one morning early, after he had come across Tony Stark drunk and lost. He had taken Stark home to sober him up before delivering the still-staggering man to Ms. Potts in Stark Tower.

Steve and Pepper had become friends of a sort after then, and whenever she could, Pepper hired Steve to come do odd jobs around her company. He was usually a weapons tester, a job that didn't make him feel quite so much like he was taking her charity. It wasn't that he couldn't get another job on his own, but he didn't want to be at work all day when Bucky might need him, much as he'd never admit that to Bucky. Sometimes he felt silly, because Bucky never needed Steve, but Steve was determined to be available just in case. So he told Bucky he was still adjusting back to civilian life, made a bigger deal of it than it really was, and gratefully accepted Pepper's offers.

But those had never included an invitation anywhere this swanky, and Steve passed the invitation and note over to Bucky to get his opinion. "Whattdya think, Buck?"

"Well, d'ya want to go, Steve?" Bucky carefully shuffled the items in his hand until the invitation was on top; Steve's fingers itched to help but he knew that would just piss Bucky off, and he'd be right.

"I guess. I mean, it'd be interesting to see what a party like that's like, right?"

"Sure. Hey, says here you can bring a guest. How about it?" Bucky leaned in close to Steve, batting his eyes exaggeratedly.

"If you want to go, then fine. I'll call and RSVP tomorrow, how about that?"

"Good. Now come on, I've ordered a pizza and the game's about to start. Grab me a beer, will ya?"

Steve gave Bucky a shove, pushing him out of his way, set the invitation to the side, and went to do as Bucky had asked.

* * *

Thor Odinson's secretary had handed him a few papers on his way out the door of his temporary office, and he rode to his New York hotel with them in his briefcase, waiting until he had gotten into his room and taken his coat and tie off and rolled up his sleeves before pulling them out to sort through.

There were a few memos, a printout of an email from his father that he would need to respond to, and an envelope.

Curiously, Thor put the other things to the side and opened the invitation, reading it over. He smiled widely and got up, going to knock at the door that adjoined his suite with his brother's.

Not waiting for a reply, Thor stuck his head into the room and ignored the protestations of his brother, Loki Odinson. He crossed the room to sit on the edge of Loki's bed, facing his brother.

Loki crossly said, looking at the invitation in Thor's hand, "Yes, I received one, too. They obviously want to impress us. They must be desperate to land that contract with Father."

Thor blinked, processing that. He often did not immediately jump to the worst case scenario, which made him such a good team with Loki, who did.

Then, shrugging, Thor said, "I want to go anyway. The invitation mentions guests, so I shall invite Sif and the others to accompany me. Susan will reply for me tomorrow, would you like me to tell her to give your affirmative answer as well?"

Loki rolled his eyes but did not point out his brother's error, that the invitation only mentioned one guest, not the four Thor was proposing to bring. Or that he had never stated that he would attend. Thor was making assumptions, as he always did.

He knew from experience that objecting would be fruitless, so, instead, Loki snapped, "Very well, yes, you do that, and get out of my room."

Thor went, knowing that now was not the time to cross Loki, who turned back to his laptop as the door shut behind his brother.

* * *

Colonel Margaret Carter, called Peggy, received her invitation through her secretary as well, but immediately emailed Pepper to RSVP rather than going through the assistant listed on the card. She had known Pepper for almost ten years now, and they rarely communicated through official channels unless it was official business.

The invitation came at a good time; Peggy had been due for a vacation for a while. The last trip she had taken had been to Afghanistan in the line of duty, and that had been a year ago.

Peggy was drafting a vacation notice when her smartphone dinged with the notification of a new email; it was from Pepper thanking her for responding so promptly and saying she was looking forward to seeing Peggy again.

Finishing up the notice and emailing that in, Peggy decided to not respond to Pepper, who was surely too busy for a cheery, 'See you there!' which would be the sole content of Peggy's message. She might text her later, instead.

For now, though, she returned to her work, making a face at the requisition order sitting right on top of her inbox.

* * *

"Natasha," Pepper called to her assistant late in the afternoon, later that week.

Natasha Romanoff, the number one woman under Pepper, came into her boss's office. "You received a rather garbled email from Mr. Stark which I took the liberty of responding to. The gist of his message was that Colonel Rhodes will be able to attend the party," she reported, standing by the door.

"Good, I'm glad Rhodey can make it. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually. Come sit down for a minute."

Natasha took a seat in front of Pepper's desk and looked at Pepper expectantly.

"Are you free that weekend? I hate to ask, but I'm going to need some help. I can't play hostess alone, and I doubt Tony will be much help. I know you don't work weekends as a general rule, but would you consider coming? I'll make sure you have as little to do as possible, and you can bring Clint if you want."

Clint Barton was Natasha's best friend and former coworker, who often swung by the office to bring her lunch. Speculation about them ran the gamut from secretly married to one of them being the other's beard.

Natasha smiled calmly. "Sure, Ms. Potts, I can come. And I'm sure Clint would love to, as well. I'll have to ask him, though."

"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Pepper? And thank you so much. I really appreciate it."

Briefly, Natasha considered making a joke about Christmas bonuses coming up before rejecting the idea. "If that's all," she said instead, rising, "I'll go text Clint now so you can get a final count. You have heard from everyone invited, correct?"

"Check with John, but I think so."

"All right." Natasha walked out of the room, and Pepper returned to her work.

At her desk, Natasha pulled her phone out and sent Clint a text with the dates and a question, 'You are coming, right? Don't abandon me to these people.'

Her phone buzzed a few minutes later with his reply, 'Wouldn't miss it for the world, Tasha. Chinese tonight?'

She texted him back with one hand as she added their names to the guest list before getting up to go knock lightly on Pepper's open door.

Pepper looked up and Natasha said simply, "Clint's coming."

"Thank you, Natasha," Pepper sighed. "I'm so glad for your help."

"No problem," Natasha returned to her desk, calling over to John to ensure that everyone had replied.

All the invitees had, so all that was left for her to do was to email a reminder to Dr. Selvig, who had been consulted when the idea of a party was first conceived to ensure that the chosen weekend fit his schedule. They could hardly have a party without their guest of honor, after all.

* * *

On December 7th, the day the party was scheduled to begin, Pepper and Natasha coordinated the dispatch of drivers to the local airport to pick up their guests at several intervals throughout the afternoon. They had flown up the day before in Tony's private jet, along with Tony, who had disappeared into his basement workshop and only briefly surfaced for a few hours of sleep, according to Pepper.

The first contingent to arrive was Rhodey, Clint, and the Odinsons, whose plane from New York City was getting in just after lunch.

Natasha sent a van, not wanting to crowd them all into a car, and when Rhodey called Pepper from the airport, she was glad that she had.

Pepper put the phone on speaker just as Rhodey was saying, "—they've got four other people with them. One woman and three men."

'Who?' Natasha mouthed to Pepper.

'The Odinsons,' Pepper mouthed back before saying out loud, "Does it look like everyone will fit or do I need to send another car?" That was Pepper, practical before anything else.

"Some of us might need to hold our luggage in our laps, but we should be able to. Is it going to be okay?"

'Clint,' Natasha mouthed again, pulling out her phone to text him.

Pepper was saying, "It will be fine, I'm sure there was just a misunderstanding somewhere along the line. Don't worry, we'll make it work. Thank you for letting me know, Rhodey."

What went unsaid was that Pepper was angry that this was spoiling her carefully laid plans, the results of hours and hours of work, but she knew that Rhodey knew her well enough to read between the lines, and the look on her face was probably enough to tip Natasha off as well.

"Sure thing," he said. "See you soon, Pepper."

"Okay, goodbye." Pepper disconnected the call and let out a loud noise of frustration.

"We don't have enough rooms for all them! We're going to have to rearrange this," she said, pulling up the spreadsheet of room assignments on her tablet.

"Put Clint in with me," Natasha said as she received his text back confirming that he understood the situation and would do his best to help. "Not like we haven't shared a bed before."

"Okay, thank you," Pepper ignored the implication of what Natasha had just said and shifted the names around, freeing up the room that Clint had been due to inhabit that contained two beds.

Watching Pepper, Natasha suggested, "Colonel Carter is pretty flexible. Do you think she'll mind bunking in with the Odinsons' female friend? Or should we assume she'll be sleeping with one of them?"

"Peggy won't mind, but let's play it by ear. There's another bed in her room, so we can move her into a single room if it looks like the other woman will be sharing with one of the Odinsons."

It took some more rearranging and moving the third man into a room with Rhodey, but Natasha and Pepper eventually got the room situation worked out just in time to go downstairs and observe the guests getting out of the van.

Pepper watched the tall, dark-haired woman carefully distance herself from Loki Odinson, carry her own large suitcase, and give Thor Odinson a friendly punch in the shoulder before turning to Natasha, who was just coming down the stairs.

Pepper blinked twice before saying, "Look." After giving Natasha a minute to observe, Pepper continued, "Put her in with Peggy, I think."

"I agree."

Pepper went to the back staircase, calling down "Tony!" several times. When her boyfriend failed to appear, she sighed and asked, "JARVIS? Protocol Three, please." JARVIS was Tony's AI, installed in the house on a smaller scale than he was in Tony's two main residences. There, he ran thorough surveillance of the house and property, in addition to basically running Tony's entire life. Here, though, JARVIS largely had to rely on the old intercom system that dated back to when Tony's father had lived in this mansion instead of the video surveillance he had in Stark Tower and Tony's house in Malibu. He was Pepper's best chance of extracting Tony from his workshop in a timely manner unless she went herself.

JARVIS said, "Right away, Ms. Potts."

Then, putting on a bright smile, Pepper led Natasha out to greet their guests. Tony came running out the front doors a moment later, just as Pepper was putting out her hand to the dark-haired woman, saying, "I'm glad to meet you, Ms. …" she trailed off, hoping that the other woman would fill in the blank.

"Call me Sif," she said, shaking Pepper's hand enthusiastically.

Pepper hid her wince, and watched Natasha use the same tactic on the Odinsons' friends while Pepper took Tony's arm as they greeted Thor and Loki.

As they were leading them inside to show them to their rooms, Rhodey engaging Tony in conversation and Clint following Natasha quietly, Natasha leaned into Pepper and whispered, "The big one's Volstagg, the blond Fandral, and the third Hogun."

"No last names?" Pepper asked.

Natasha shook her head, and Pepper continued, "She's Sif, also no last name. Perhaps that's a custom?"

"I don't know," Natasha answered before stepping forward to take charge of Sif and Clint, leaving the others for Pepper to show to their rooms.

Tony followed Pepper's group, still chatting with Rhodey.

Sif's room was first, and Natasha explained, "You'll be sharing with Colonel Peggy Carter, who will be getting in later."

"Colonel?" Sif asked, seeming interested.

"She's British, and works with NATO," Natasha answered.

"Very well, thank you," Sif began to shut the door carefully.

As Natasha led Clint away, she whispered lowly, "You're in with me, sorry."

"No problem," he said cheerfully.

Dropping him at their room, Natasha returned to Pepper's office just in time to see Pepper telling the driver, "You didn't do anything wrong, but please, _please_, if there are more people waiting for you than you were expecting, call me."

"Yes, ma'am," she said, hands clenching around her hat in her hands.

"Okay. You know who you're supposed to be picking up, right?"

The driver nodded. "Yes, ma'am, Steve Rogers and guest and Dr. Jane Foster and guest. Their plane gets in in about thirty minutes."

"That's right."

The driver nodded again and left the room, putting on her cap as she went.

Pepper leaned back in her chair and sighed. "Were your two okay with things?"

"Yes, they were fine."

"Mine were too, but poor Rhodey. I hate throwing him in with a stranger, especially when this is supposed to be fun for him. And Peggy, too. Neither one of them has had a vacation in so long."

"Your friends are flexible; it'll be fine. How were the Odinsons and their friends?"

"Fine, fine. Didn't seem to surprise their friends that they'd be sharing rooms at all, and Thor and Loki were exactly how they've always been; Thor's friendly and Loki is a little...stuck-up."

"At least that isn't a surprise."

"True. You can go if you want," Pepper offered. "I won't be needing you until the next group gets in."

"Okay, then. I have my phone if you need me, but reception's not that great up here. I don't think I have any bars."

"JARVIS can page you through the intercom if I need you. Go take a break." Pepper turned the computer around to face her, and Natasha left the room.

* * *

At the airport, Steve was left juggling both his and Bucky's backpacks after Bucky abruptly shoved his at Steve so that he could rush to the aid of a pretty girl who was struggling with both a suitcase and a long black carrying case.

Next to her, another woman was appearing to give directions, but she was hindered by the backpack and suitcase she was carrying.

Bucky swooped in and grabbed the suitcase, bestowing his best grin on the girl, and Steve rolled his eyes, walking over to the group just in time to hear his name being said, "—and that big lug's my best friend, Steve."

"Nice to meet you," the second woman said to Steve. "I'm Jane, and that's Darcy. I'd shake your hand, but, well."

"It's okay, ma'am," Steve said. "Where are you two going?"

Darcy said, "Oh, we're supposed to be meeting a driver here. We're going to a party at Tony Stark's place up here, you heard of him?"

"Heard of him?" Bucky deadpanned. "We're waiting for the same driver!"

"Well, isn't that a coincidence?" Darcy said, shifting the case she was carrying to one hand.

Bucky, always a ladies man, went to offer her his arm (a move Steve had never understood but that Bucky swore by), but it was the one on the opposite side from where Darcy was standing and he was holding her suitcase in that hand.

He had refused to pin the sleeve that was closer to Darcy that morning, saying he didn't want to draw attention to himself.

Steve could see the exact second the pieces clicked together in Darcy's head.

Apparently, Bucky could too, because he stiffened, and Steve prepared himself to intervene. Pretty girl or not, he wasn't going to stand for any crap about Bucky's arm.

But Darcy just smiled and walked around to Bucky's other side, taking his proffered arm, still smiling. They headed towards the exit doors, and Steve relaxed.

"After you," he said to Jane, who smiled at him.

* * *

Their arrival at the mansion went without incident, and Natasha showed Steve and Bucky to their room while Pepper walked with Jane and Darcy, chatting with Jane.

The final group was due to arrive shortly before dark, and consisted of Doctors Selvig, Banner, and Ross, and Colonel Carter.

They brought no surprises with them, fortunately for Pepper, and were soon settled in their rooms, Natasha escorting Erik and Peggy while Pepper took Betty and Bruce, chatting about the last time they had seen each other. It had been at a conference where Tony was displaying a new invention and Bruce was presenting, and Pepper and Betty had been accompanying their respective significant others.

Pepper had pulled Peggy aside for a moment when she arrived to explain the shortage of rooms while Natasha greeted the doctors. Peggy didn't mind sharing, and she had knocked briskly on the door of her room while Natasha and Erik waited to make sure that things were working out okay.

Sif opened it and smiled, putting out her hand for Peggy to shake. Satisfied that they were getting along, Natasha led Erik to his room.

* * *

**A quick note on Bucky: I borrowed the idea of his missing arm from comics canon (soon to be movie canon!).**

**Reviews are always appreciated!**


	2. Dinner, Interrupted

**Again, my greatest appreciation to my beta, dysprositos, and artist, taibhrigh, whose wonderful art can be found at the link on my profile.**

**I should say that I know very little about appropriate police procedure, so please bear with me.**

**Last chapter was an omniscient POV, but here Pepper begins to narrate.**

**WARNING: this is the chapter with the dead body, although it is not graphic.**

* * *

It was almost seven, darkness had fallen outside and it had begun to snow lightly. People had begun to drift downstairs in preparation for the dinner.

The table was set—Pepper had checked—and she was hovering in the doorway of the kitchen, keeping an eye on the wait staff as they alternately goofed off and helped the two cooks she'd employed.

Satisfied that everything was going smoothly, Pepper shut the door and went into the living room, surveying the room. Everyone was chatting, so Pepper smiled, not wanting to interrupt an ongoing conversation, pleased that her carefully-selected guests were getting along.

Steve came in, followed closely by his friend, and Pepper approached them, smiling. "Did you two get settled in well? I'm so glad you could come."

"Yes, ma'am, we did." Despite her best efforts, Pepper had never quite broken Steve of the habit of calling her 'ma'am.' She had even been known to enjoy the honorific on occasion. His easygoing demeanor had been one of the main reasons she'd wanted to invite him; she knew he got along well with just about everyone he met.

"Good. Mr. Barnes, correct?" Pepper asked, putting out her hand for him to shake.

"Just Bucky, miss."

"Call me Pepper, then." And, seeing Peggy come into the room, she said, "Why don't I introduce you two to a friend of mine?"

Without waiting for an answer, she walked over to Peggy, expecting them to follow.

"Steve Rogers, this is my friend Colonel Margaret Carter. Peggy, this is Steve and, oh, where did Bucky go?"

"The Sergeant is probably giving us a chance to get reacquainted," Peggy answered. "Hullo, Captain."

"Colonel," Steve said automatically, following it with a softer, "Peggy."

"You two know each other?"

"We met in Afghanistan," Peggy said, crooking a finger at someone over Pepper's shoulder.

Bucky came over almost abashedly, and Peggy continued, "Good to see you again, Barnes."

"Colonel. Uh, nice to see you."

"How is your rehabilitation coming along?"

"Good. I'm doing fine. Thanks. And your job? Uh, how're things?"

"I am expected to become the head of the department by this time next year. No more time for traveling to war zones, I'm afraid."

"Congratulations. Uh, there's someone I need to go talk to...over there. Later, Steve. Colonel."

He beat a hasty retreat to another corner of the room, and Pepper finally noticed that Steve had not said a word other than Peggy's title and name and was still staring at Peggy like he'd never seen her before.

Pepper decided that following Bucky was a good idea and left those two alone to get reacquainted.

She joined the Odinsons and their friends, standing near the fireplace, Thor speaking at length about something while his friends listened and Loki stared in the other direction, clearly bored.

Thor ended his diatribe when Pepper came over, and she was soon being formally introduced to his friends by Thor (no last names were given, still, and she found that odd, but perhaps it was a custom). He didn't offer an explanation of having brought four people along when his secretary had only said he was coming with a guest, as suggested by the invitation, and his brother, who had been invited separately, was planning to attend as well.

When that conversation ended, Pepper drifted over to direct Bucky, who was standing by himself in a corner doing his utmost to seem like he wasn't watching Steve and Peggy intently, over to Rhodey, Clint, and Tony, who were engaging in an animated discussion. About what, Pepper had no idea.

Pepper trusted that Rhodey would keep an eye on Tony, and they seemed a likely bunch for Bucky to get along with.

She made the introductions and was just turning to the door when Natasha drifted in with Bruce and Betty. They came over to Pepper, and Betty explained laughingly that Bruce had sworn he'd known how to get back out to the front of the house from their guest quarters but had actually gotten them lost until Natasha had rescued them.

Jane and Darcy came in then, and Pepper watched Jane stop dead in the doorway, staring at one of the other guests, although Pepper couldn't tell at whom. Apparently she had managed to invite another pair of old acquaintances. Steve and Peggy had yet to break away from each other, locked in discussion on the other side of the room.

It was such a small world.

Pepper moved closer in time to hear Jane hiss, "Thor's here? Why didn't you tell me he was in the country?"

Darcy sighed, "I did, Jane. I said, 'Oh, hey, Jane, according to this article on the internet, Thor is back in New York to make some sort of deal with Stark Industries,' and you said, 'That's great, Darcy, now hand me that screwdriver, no, the flat-head one, and the duct tape,' so I figured you didn't care! That happened forever ago, anyway. I didn't realize it was still a _thing_."

Jane was trying to think up a reply to that when Thor turned around and caught sight of her, and his whole face lit up. He strode across the room to her, flanked by his friends and leaving Loki leaning disinterestedly against the fireplace. Thor seized Jane in a great hug, exclaiming her name and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. Apparently what had happened so long ago hadn't seemed that long ago to him.

Jane's feet were dangling off the floor and Darcy was blushing next to where Jane had been standing until she slunk along the wall to stand next to Bucky, who, Pepper noted, seemed glad to see her.

Pepper gave herself a mental pat on the back for planning to seat those two next to each other at dinner, as conversation resumed and it appeared that Bucky introduced Darcy to the people he was talking with.

Excusing herself from Bruce and Betty, Pepper took Natasha's arm. "Is everything okay?"

"Seems to be," Natasha said. "Is everyone here?"

The clock chimed seven before Pepper could answer, and she took a brief headcount before realizing that they were one short.

"The guest of honor isn't here yet," Pepper said.

Natasha hummed, looking around the room. After a moment, she asked, "Should we start seating them anyway?"

"Yes," Pepper decided, catching Rhodey's eye and motioning him over.

"Would you mind going up and retrieving Dr. Selvig?" she asked him. "I'd send Tony, but."

"Say no more. Be back in a minute." Rhodey turned on his heel and left the room, and Pepper clapped her hands together to attract everyone's attention.

"Let's proceed into the dining room," she said. "Our guest of honor will be down momentarily. I apologize for the delay."

Natasha headed out into the hall to direct traffic while Pepper watched the guests move out the door. Loki was the last one through, and Pepper smiled at him, moving to follow along.

"How are you, Mr. Odinson?"

His face twisted slightly at the name, a movement Pepper did not see, but he replied pleasantly enough, "I am well. You have a beautiful home."

"Oh, it's not mine, it's Tony's."

"I understood the two of you were, well." He broke off, seeming to expect her to understand.

Pepper did not blush at the implication, a reflex she had learned to suppress only after years of Tony-induced practice. "We are dating, yes."

"Oh." He didn't seem to have anything else to say, and Pepper's stock of polite questions was running low, so she walked him to the door of the dining room and stood next to it in silence, waiting for Rhodey and Erik to come down so that she could alert the wait staff to bring in the first course.

Rhodey appeared at the head of the stairs alone, seeming bothered. Pepper walked over to the bottom of the staircase so that he didn't have to shout, and immediately was glad she had.

"Selvig's dead," Rhodey said in a hushed whisper. "His throat's cut. Call the police, will you?"

Pepper's hand flew to her mouth, and she asked, "Are you sure he's dead?"

"No pulse, Pep. I'm going to go back up and wait with the body. Don't let any of them up, not even Tony. It's not something to gawk at."

He turned back down the hall upstairs and Pepper hurried to the phone just behind the stairs, dialing 911 and explaining the situation to the operator.

The operator wanted to keep Pepper on the phone, but she needed to return to her guests and employees.

One of whom, it would seem, was a murderer.

* * *

Pepper went into the dining room and asked that Natasha and Tony step out in the hall for a second. She could tell her voice was slightly higher than usual, but she was trying her best to sound normal.

Out in the hall and out of earshot, she whispered, "Dr. Selvig is dead. His throat's been cut. We need to keep everyone calm until the police get here. I've called them and they're on their way."

Natasha's face took on a grim expression, and she said, "Anything I can do to help, Pepper."

"Thank you, I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you up on that."

"That sucks. I'll go tell everyone," and Tony turned back towards the dining room door like he thought Pepper was going to allow that.

She gave his arm a vicious yank and said, "You will do no such thing. Now, I want you both to go back in and sit down. Please. I will tell everyone that he is dead, _not_ that he has been murdered. That is a detail better left unsaid until the police get here. Rhodey is staying with the body until they do."

They both nodded, and Pepper gave Tony a stern glare, begging him to realize the gravity of the situation, before they went back in. After dealing in weapons and the destruction they wrought for so many years, Tony had become rather inured to the harshness of death, and he had a hard time remembering that most other people weren't like that.

Tony and Natasha sat back down and Pepper took a position next to the door, raising a hand to get everyone's attention.

Then she said very calmly, "I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but Dr. Selvig is dead. The police are on their way, and I would very much appreciate it if everyone could remain seated until they arrive."

A commotion broke out as the guests began talking, but no one moved to get up.

With that done, Pepper went into the kitchen and took a quick headcount. Everyone was there, and she called over the clamor, "Excuse me!"

When the staff had quieted, Pepper said, "One of my guests is dead, and the police are coming here. Please stay in the kitchen until they get here."

The taller cook asked, "Does that mean you want to postpone dinner, ma'am?"

Glad to see someone being practical, Pepper said, "Yes, it does. Please do what you can to keep the food warm; I'm sure we'll be eating later. And put on some coffee, please."

The cook nodded and they turned back to their work, quickly dismantling things and tucking them inside ovens and under foil.

Satisfied, Pepper went out into the hall and pulled on her jacket just as the police lights came into view up the drive. Going out onto the porch, where she noticed that it was beginning to snow harder, she greeted them, leading them inside and explaining the situation.

A couple officers remained downstairs while the others followed her up the stairs and to Erik's room, where Rhodey met them at the door.

He explained, "I took his pulse at his right wrist but I haven't touched anything else."

One of the officers drew Rhodey aside, asking, "You're the one who found the body?"

Pepper walked over to the female officer standing just inside the door. "Officer …"

"Deputy. Hill. Maria Hill."

"Deputy Hill. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know."

"I will. I can't officially confirm that this is a homicide at this time, but that's certainly what it looks like. The chief is coming down to investigate personally. It's not often that we get one of those up here." Then, turning her attention from Pepper to a male deputy standing nearby and taking notes, she snapped, "Coulson, where's Parker?"

"Right here," a young man with tousled brown hair huffed. "I left my film in the car."

"You _are_ going to go digital," Hill threatened, in a way that indicated this was a long-standing complaint.

Pepper could tell she was in the way, and she went back downstairs after informing Deputy Coulson, who seemed less likely to take her head off for interrupting than Deputy Hill, that there was coffee in the kitchen for them if they wanted.

It was getting late, and she was hungry. But downstairs, more deputies were arriving and going into the kitchen to speak to to the staff, so Pepper went into the dining room with the guests instead, sinking into a chair near Tony and allowing her shoulders to slump for a minute.

Then, chin up and cheery mask back in place, she turned to her right and joined the conversation Betty was having with Bruce and Jane.

She could see Jane's hand clenched in Thor's under the table as Jane explained that she'd never known Erik to have any heart problems, and that she had no idea what could have caused his death.

As the closest person to Erik present, it made sense that Jane would be the center of attention.

Pepper waited until a break in the conversation to lean over Betty slightly and ask, "Jane, does he have any family we should be notifying?"

Jane smiled sadly, "Me. He and my father were best friends, and I'm the closest thing he has to family now. No siblings and no relatives in America, only a couple cousins back in the old country."

Pepper hadn't known that, and she filed it away, silently grateful that she would not need to make any phone calls to family. She thanked Jane and sat back, just taking a moment to breathe. That moment stretched into two, then into three, until the room was mostly silent, its occupants observing each other, waiting.

Then, a tall man with an honest-to-goodness eyepatch over an eye stuck his head in the room and looked around until his gaze landed on her.

"Ms. Potts?"

She stood, "Yes, that's me."

"Good. Walk with me."

She gave what she hoped was a reassuring smile to her guests and followed him out of the room. In the hall, he introduced himself, "I'm Sheriff Nick Fury. I have a few questions for you."

"Of course."

"What, exactly, happened here tonight?"

"We're hosting a party, that is, Mr. Stark and I, to celebrate Dr. Selvig signing an important employment contract with Mr. Stark's company, Stark Industries. Dr. Selvig was late coming down to dinner, so I sent Colonel Rhodes up to fetch him. Rhodey, that is, Colonel Rhodes, came down and told me that Dr. Selvig was dead and asked me to call the police. I did, and then I informed my guests and staff of his death."

"I'll need you to verify that no one is missing from either of those two groups."

"Certainly. All of the guests except Colonel Rhodes were just in the dining room with me, and I told the staff to stay in the kitchen, so we can go there and check on them."

"My men are speaking to them in the living room, so I need you to let them finish before going in there."

"Yes, sir."

"How well do you know your guests?"

"I know some of them very well, and I've only just met a few of them today."

"Who would those be?"

"I've never met the Odinsons' guests, in fact, I didn't even know they were coming."

"Their names?" he asked, beckoning a younger woman over to take notes.

"The Odinsons are Thor and Loki, but I knew them previously. Their guests are Sif, Volstagg, Fandral, and Hogun."

"Last names?"

"They haven't said. I think it's a cultural thing."

"Huh. Anyone else?"

"Dr. Foster's assistant, Darcy Lewis. I had met everyone else before at least once."

"Good," Fury said.

Deputy Coulson stuck his head out of the door of the living room. "We're done, sir. Everyone's clean, none of them left the kitchen during the estimated time of death and they all check out. All locals."

"Come in, Ms. Potts," Fury gestured her through the door, and Pepper scanned the faces of her staff, counting.

"Two waiters, two cooks. That's everyone," she confirmed.

"And there's no one else on the grounds?"

"I sent the driver home earlier, closed the gate after her myself. There's no one else."

"Yes, sir." Pepper turned to the staff, "You can all go home, we'll manage. No one's in trouble over this, and I'll call your employment agency tomorrow to explain."

Fury listened and then jerked a thumb at Coulson, "Go with them."

"Where are you parked?" Coulson asked, and Pepper watched them leave the room, seeing a covered stretcher come down the hall.

She closed her eyes for a moment, and turned to Sheriff Fury, who seemed to be waiting with a barely-there politeness for her to have her moment, if the annoyance she could see on his face was anything to go by.

Their eyes met, and he began brusquely, "All right, I'm going to need to talk to all of these unexpected guests, and have a quick word with everyone else." Turning away, he said, "Hill, go with Potts and get those five and bring them in here," he jerked his thumb at the living room.

Pepper's stomach rumbled, and she asked, "Sheriff Fury, we haven't eaten yet, and it's late. Is it okay if those of us who aren't being questioned right away get our dinner?"

"Sure, whatever. Just send me those five." He went into the living room, and Pepper smiled at Deputy Hill.

They walked into the dining room, and Pepper said, "Darcy, Sif, Hogun, Volstagg, Fandral, the sheriff wants to see you. Please go with Deputy Hill."

They all stood and left the room with Hill, and Pepper continued, "Sheriff Fury wants to talk to all of us later. I've sent the kitchen staff home, and if I could please get a few volunteers to help me, we'll have dinner now."

Natasha stood, as did Steve and Peggy. Rhodey had come into the room at some point, and he started to get up, too, but Pepper shook her head at him. He had already done enough.

"Thank you," Pepper led them into the kitchen and washed her hands before pulling things out of the oven. "I suppose there's no point in serving courses now."

Natasha chuckled a little, "Sorry, boss. I think just feeding everyone will be sufficient."

"More than," Steve sighed, accepting the pan containing the chicken from Pepper.

They gathered what they could carry and took it into the dining room. Pepper went back into the kitchen and looked in the cabinets until she found two pitchers, which she filled with water and took back into the dining room. She certainly wanted to have all her wits about her tonight, and she suspected that most of her guests would as well.

Indeed, she was correct, as the wine she had picked remained untouched on the sideboard. Tony had made a move towards it, but Pepper grabbed his arm and shook her head firmly. If he wanted to drink, he could wait and do it later, when the sheriff and his men had gone.

Food was passed around, and everyone seemed to be feeling better once they had something in their stomachs.

After a few minutes, Sheriff Fury came in with the five guests he had wanted to speak to, and he addressed the room, "It's late, people, I know. So I'm going to wait to do more in-depth interviews until tomorrow, unless you have something you want to speak to me about, in which case come on to the other room."

He waited a minute, then said, "No takers? Okay, Potts, I need to speak with you again."

Pepper directed Natasha to help the newcomers with their dinner as she stood, following the sheriff out into the hall.

"We have everything we need from Dr. Selvig's room," he said. "I'm going to ask that no one goes in there, and we'll come back to speak to your guests tomorrow. Please keep them all here."

"Are you confirming that it was a murder, then?" Pepper asked.

"Not officially. But yes, I would say that is likely. Keep everyone inside and away from Selvig's room."

"Will the rest of us be safe?" she asked.

"I believe so. Nobody seems to have seen anything, so somebody probably snuck onto the grounds, that gate doesn't seem impossible to climb. Good night, Ms. Potts."

"Good night, Sheriff."

The last of the police left shortly after he did, and Pepper returned to her guests. Their departure seemed rather sudden; Pepper knew for a fact that they hadn't searched the whole house. It seemed lax, but then again, she supposed, they knew what they were doing. Although Deputy Hill had said they didn't deal with many murders in the area. Maybe they just didn't like being out late like this. It was almost eleven at night, and they were out in the middle of nowhere, after all. Probably a long drive back to the station, and Pepper knew that there weren't any streetlights out here. She checked out a window, and it was snowing fairly hard by now, too.

But she didn't know for sure, and she couldn't worry about it now. She had her guests to deal with.

"The police have gone for now." Pepper told the guests. "They'll be back tomorrow to talk to all of us in more detail, like the sheriff said. I'm so sorry that this happened."

From the goings-on, Pepper could tell that the guests were guessing that more had happened than a simple heart attack, as they had been led to assume at first, but she didn't want to say anything about that until the sheriff's department confirmed that it was a murder.

Dinner was wrapping up, and the guests began to disperse upstairs to bed. Pepper watched Thor apparently unwillingly release Jane so that she could go speak to Darcy, after which Jane immediately returned to Thor's side, taking his hand again.

She couldn't hear what Jane had told Darcy, but she could guess. This was confirmed when Darcy came over to Bucky, who was standing within earshot of Pepper, and said, "Jane's gonna sleep with Thor tonight. I don't want to be alone, will you come?"

Bucky's grin managed to stay on the right side of lascivious, probably out of respect for Darcy and Jane's loss, and he said, "Sure thing. Just let me tell Steve," and went over to his friend.

Steve nodded, and Bucky and Darcy left the room together.

Pepper almost expected Steve to approach Peggy next to continue the pattern, and when he didn't, she went over to Peggy herself.

"Do you feel comfortable sleeping with Sif tonight? I can send Tony down to the couch in his workshop and you can come sleep with me, if you want." Pepper intended to make the same offer to Rhodey, as he was the only other person she had assigned to room with an unfamiliar person.

Peggy smiled. "No, I think Sif and I have rather a lot in common, and we'll do just fine. Why are you asking? Is there something you're not telling us?"

Pepper checked for any eavesdroppers before whispering, "It hasn't been confirmed yet, but it seems like Dr. Selvig was murdered."

"Oh," Peggy paused a moment before deciding, "I am sorry to hear that, but it doesn't change anything. I will remain in the room with Sif. I can handle myself."

"Of course you can," Pepper reassured. "Good night, Peggy."

She found Rhodey and offered to house him in Tony's workshop if he wanted, but he declined as well, with much the same excuse. "I can handle myself, Pep. Are you going to be okay?"

"I will be. Thank you, Rhodey."

The last of the guests trickled out while they were speaking, and Rhodey gave her a brief hug before following, leaving Pepper alone with Natasha.

"Where's Tony?" Pepper asked.

"I think he went down to his workshop. What can I do to help you?"

"You can go to bed, Natasha. This is more than any of us signed up for, to be sure. I'll see you in the morning. Thank you for everything, I'm sorry that it turned out this way."

Natasha smiled at the compliment and turned to go, spinning back around abruptly. "What are you going to do about breakfast?"

Pepper hadn't thought that far ahead, truth be told. "I'll figure something out. Thank you."

Natasha said, "Good night," and left the room.

Pepper was alone, and she had a job to do. Some of the guests had thoughtfully taken their dishes into the kitchen, but the table needed to be cleared.

She started stacking plates, sticking utensils inside glasses for better ease of carrying, moving the table's contents into the kitchen.

The few leftovers she put in tupperware and tucked inside the fridge, checking around the kitchen to make sure that none of the food had been overlooked, before pulling on the dishwashing gloves and turning the water on hot.

They had a dishwasher, so she really only needed to rinse the dishes and stick them in there, but the familiar rhythm of dishwashing was soothing, and she tried to lose herself in the movement of her hands, attempting to shut her brain down.

It was largely unsuccessful, but she continued to try. She was halfway through the stack, humming under her breath, when a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind. She stiffened slightly, but then Tony's head dropped onto her shoulder, his goatee scratching her neck, and she relaxed. She could smell the alcohol on his breath, but when he spoke, he seemed sober enough.

"Come on to bed, Pep. Leave all this for the morning. I set J up to run back through all the surveillance tapes and see if there was anything."

"Kinda makes you wish we had indoor surveillance, right?"

"Yeah, it does. Nothing we can do about that, though. My old man wasn't _that_ paranoid, and I guess I should probably update a few things now. You sent all the employees home, right?"

"I did. The sheriff cleared them and I don't think they were exactly anxious to hang around. We'll manage. Are you going to tell the police if JARVIS finds something?"

"Not if I can help it. You know I don't want to share him. But if they can't come to the right conclusion on their own, then I'll help them along a little. Now, come on, the dishes will still be here in the morning, unfortunately."

Pepper shut the water off and removed the gloves, allowing herself to be tugged upstairs and to bed.

"You locked the workshop door, right?"

"Yes, Pep. It's all taken care of, now just relax."

Pepper sincerely doubted that she could relax until all the guests were safely home, Erik's murderer had been caught, and a suitable replacement was found. Perhaps Dr. Foster...?

Tony suddenly tapped her forehead. "I can hear you thinking. Stop. Here," he handed her her pajamas and ushered her into the bathroom.

That just showed how strange tonight had become; Tony was normally a shameless bathroom hog.

But Pepper forced herself to calm down and go to bed. Everything would work out in the morning, and she needed to get some sleep so that she could handle the details.


	3. What the light of morning brings

**My utmost gratitude to my beta, dysprositos, and my artist, taibhrigh, whose beautiful art can be found at the link on my profile.**

**I don't believe this chapter needs warnings, but this is still a murder mystery!**

* * *

Except it didn't work out quite like that.

Pepper woke up and rolled over to look at the clock as she usually did every morning. It was blank, and she wondered if it had somehow become unplugged during the night. Had it been working before she'd gone to bed?

Then the utter stillness of the house hit her, and she realized that the power must be out.

Reaching for her robe and shivering as the chill in the air penetrated her awareness, she got out of bed and went over to the window, pulling the curtain back enough to light the room. Outside, the ground was completely covered in snow, and it was still coming down hard.

Going back over to the bed, Pepper shook Tony's shoulder. The light had not disturbed him at all, which wasn't unusual for Tony.

"Wha'?" he blinked his way into consciousness.

"It's snowing, Tony. Hard. The power's out, and you need to get downstairs and do something about it. Please."

He didn't move, and she shook him harder.

"'Kay, 'm goin'," he mumbled, rolling over and starting to sit up.

Pepper sighed and went over to her purse, digging around for her small container of different kinds of pills that she usually kept with her. Work-related headaches were not at all uncommon for her, unfortunately. She carried the small canister over to the window and carefully pulled out a yellow pill.

She tried to get Tony a glass of water so he could swallow the caffeine pill more easily, but the water did not run.

Swearing under her breath, she took the pill to Tony. "The water's not running, so you'll have to swallow this dry."

"Whatsit?"

"A caffeine pill, Tony. No coffee 'til you get the power fixed, you know."

"Oh, yeah!" Moving with more alacrity, Tony swallowed the pill, making a face as it scraped roughly down his throat, and got to his feet, pulling on his robe, going to his dresser, and digging around

As he rooted around, he explained, "The water's from a well and comes into the house on electric power, so it ought to start working once I get the power back on."

A minute later he came up with a pair of flashlights. Handing her one, he said, "I'll be in the workshop, Pep. There should be more of these in the office, and I think there's candles in the kitchen. I dunno how long I'll be. Take care now, don't stub a toe in the dark or something."

"I will be. You take care yourself," Pepper said, leaning over for a quick kiss before gathering up the clothes she had laid out the night before and adding a thick sweater to the top of the pile. She needed to go check on the guests, but she couldn't hear them moving around and she wanted to be dressed first.

She did feel better after putting on her clothes, running a brush through her hair, and rinsing her mouth out with mouthwash, so she quickly slipped on her shoes and headed for the office that Tony rarely used, down on the first floor.

She tried to be quiet as she passed guests' rooms, not wanting a great commotion until she had found the flashlights. They could open their curtains, she supposed, but with the heat not working, that would only serve to make their rooms colder.

There were indeed several flashlights in the office, and Pepper collected the pile into an arm and headed back upstairs, making more noise as she walked this time on purpose.

Thor's friend Volstagg was the first one to poke his head out of the room, a blanket around his shoulders. He opened his mouth to tell her something, presumably about the power, the heat, or the water, but closed it when he took in the stack of flashlights in her arms.

Instead, he asked for a 'torch,' and Pepper handed one over with a question of her own, "Who are you rooming with?"

He came back with "Hogun," and Pepper thanked him, moving on down the hall.

A few other people came out and retrieved flashlights, until Pepper only had two left, hers and one more to give away.

She waited a minute before knocking on the door of Bruce and Betty's room. Betty came to the door, blinking sleepily with her arms wrapped around herself, and Pepper quickly explained the situation and passed the flashlight over.

She went downstairs then, to get some candles set up and discovered that the dishes were all washed and spread out on towels along the kitchen counters to dry.

That was a mystery she would solve later. For now, she was simply grateful for not needing to take care of that herself.

As she was hunting through the drawers for the candles and matches, the house started humming around her, and when she tried the kitchen light switch, it worked.

Quickly, she moved around downstairs turning on the lights, greeting Tony with a kiss when he emerged from the stairs leading down to his workshop.

"Did you start the coffee?" he asked.

"Not yet, Tony, I needed to get the lights on first."

"Okay, I'll do it. JARVIS told me to bring gas for the generator when we left New York, so I owe him one."

"I'll have to remember to thank him, that was good of him. Let me come see about breakfast, I'm starving."

They went into the kitchen together, and Pepper tucked the flashlight into her pants pocket, just in case. She trusted that the generator wouldn't burn out, but it never hurt to be careful.

He turned on the tap, and it took a minute, but water began to run out, and he filled the coffee maker.

"Gonna have to take it easy on showers," Tony said sourly.

"I can't exactly order people to not shower, Tony!"

"I guess not. Well, if something breaks, I'll fix it. Don't think the police'll make it out here today; we're too far off the highway for a snowplow to come through right away. And we've got a long damn driveway, which I don't think we'll be able to shovel ourselves."

"I'll call the police after breakfast."

"The landline's dead, you know. I'll probably have to rig up some sort of cell signal booster."

"_After_ breakfast." Pepper didn't want to be left alone to manage the guests right now.

"Yes, dear," Tony capitulated.

She started taking inventory, planning what she could easily serve for breakfast. They had bread, and lots of it, so toast was doable and they could still have bread left over for sandwiches later if necessary. Tony was making coffee, and Pepper found enough eggs to go around and a large pack of bacon in the fridge. She pulled them out and looked inquisitively at Tony.

He looked back and said, "Nuh uh, you know I'll burn everything. Sorry."

"You made me an omelette that one time," Pepper replied, but she had known Tony was going to be of no help to her in that way.

"In a tiny airplane kitchen. And it took two hours."

"You have a point," Pepper sighed. She could always hold out hope that Tony would discover his kitchen skills. "Make me a cup, will you?"

Pepper started cracking eggs into the largest bowl she could find, and just as Tony was handing over her coffee, just the right shade of light brown, Sif came into the kitchen with a cheery "Good morning."

Tony was hovering protectively over the coffeemaker, but she eyed it purposefully until Tony gave in and said, "Cups are in the cabinet over there."

After Sif had downed what seemed like half of her cup in one swallow, she looked at Pepper and asked, "Can I help?"

She needed _someone _to help, since Tony wasn't going to be of much use other than in coffee preparation. And guarding the coffeepot, apparently. "If you don't mind."

Sif shrugged, and so Pepper handed her a loaf of bread and pointed, "There's the toaster, and I think making one loaf's worth of toast to start off with will be good, please."

Sif smiled cheerfully and set to work, and Pepper turned back to the eggs.

Clint and Natasha were the next two in, and Natasha fixed them both cups of coffee, carefully maneuvering around Tony, who helpfully pointed her to the open cabinet of coffee cups, while Clint picked up the package of bacon and greeted Pepper.

"I'll handle this, Ms. Potts, if you don't mind."

"Not at all, Clint. And it's Pepper, please."

"Um, hello, hi, I am standing right here," Tony said. "I believe it is customary to speak to your host, tell me I am not just making this up, Pepper." She ignored him, and his voice got higher, "Pepper?"

Pepper rolled her eyes. Sometimes Tony forgot he had manners, usually at times that were the most inconvenient for her. But she still loved him despite that, although exasperation was a common feeling where he was concerned as well. She said, "Please excuse him, he doesn't make sense until he's had four cups of coffee. He's only on his second." That wasn't necessarily true, but Tony was being rude and he rarely minded being the butt of a joke.

"No problem," Clint smiled, looking around for the frying pan.

Tony sidled over to Pepper and whispered, "I fixed the power before I had any coffee, and now I'm not coherent enough to talk to people?"

"You were rude. And besides, you're never coherent enough to talk to people, Tony. Now, make yourself useful and go upstairs and tell anyone you see that breakfast is being made and the coffee's ready. And _don't_ go barging into people's rooms, remember that you have manners. Please, honey."

"Yes, light of my life," Tony kissed the top of Pepper's head before leaving the room and taking his third cup of coffee with him.

For a while, everyone in the kitchen worked in silence, Natasha retrieving condiments from the fridge and stacking plates and utensils to one side, until the kitchen started to fill up.

It got crowded quickly, and after Loki came in to retrieve his coffee and backed out of the room almost immediately, Pepper shot Natasha a quick look, wordlessly asking her to handle the situation.

Cheerily, Natasha's voice rang out over the noise, "I believe you will all be more comfortable in the living room."

The kitchen emptied out as Natasha directed people in so that they could get a cup of coffee and back out after they were through adding whatever cream and sugar they wanted.

Pepper and Clint were just finishing up, Sif having finished making the toast several minutes ago, when Tony hurried in and beckoned to Pepper.

He seemed more shaken up than she had seen him in a long time, not since they had learned that his surrogate father, Obadiah Stane, had been plotting to have him murdered.

So Pepper asked, trying to keep her voice light, "Natasha, do you mind finishing up here?"

The guests were important to her, but Tony was her first priority, was always probably going to be her first priority (only surpassed by her need to take care of herself).

She passed the spatula over and allowed Tony to drag her downstairs into the workshop, where he shut the door firmly behind them and said, "JARVIS was down 'cause of the power outage, but he booted back up again and finished checking all of the cameras from last night. Pepper. Nobody came in or out that we didn't know about. And you know there are no blind spots, and J would know if he'd been tampered with."

Pepper gaped.

"Yeah, so we've definitely got a murderer amongst us, apparently. God, I wish we had a helipad or something so those cops could get their asses out here."

Pepper shared the sentiment, but she needed to be practical. "They probably couldn't fly through the snow anyway, Tony. I did a headcount, and everyone is still here. I think the best thing to do would be for you to come have breakfast like usual and then make that cell booster you were talking about; I don't have any reception—I checked yesterday—and I doubt anyone else does either. I know Natasha said she didn't. Then, we need to call the police and let them know what we've found. Maybe they'll have some suggestions for us."

"Or we can call the police and then investigate ourselves."

"There's no way to do that without informing the guests, and we can't just search them without cause, Tony!"

"Fine. We tell them, and anyone who refuses is kept under supervision until the cops _do_ get out here."

"I don't see how we have much of a choice otherwise."

"Okay, that's what we'll do, then. I'll let you do the talking, I know you're better at that than I am, but Pep, be careful, please?"

"I _am_ rather fond of my own skin, you know. But I appreciate your consideration. You take care as well, Tony."

"Aye, aye." He saluted playfully, and her reaction to seeing him upset relaxed somewhat. "Shall we?" he offered his arm, and she took it, smiling.

They went up the stairs to join their breakfasting guests, and Pepper did her best to appear relaxed, like Tony had just wanted to see her about something inconsequential.

Once they had eaten, several volunteers offered to help with the dishes and Tony disappeared in the commotion.

After a few moments, Pepper left Natasha in charge and went upstairs to retrieve her cell phone, grabbing Rhodey's arm and taking him down to the workshop with her.

Tony was just finishing up, and he took the phone Pepper offered him without saying anything or seeming to notice that he was being handed something.

Used to this behavior, Pepper and Rhodey didn't speak until Tony looked up and noticed Rhodey's presence, "Honeybear! Did she tell you what was going on?"

"No. What _is_ going on?"

"We can trust you, right?" Tony was unusually serious, and Pepper appreciated that, although she would never think to question Rhodey, of all people.

Fortunately, Rhodey was accustomed to the strange things that came out of Tony's mouth and rolled his eyes, saying, "I've had a thousand opportunities to kill you in your sleep, Stark, and you're still here and getting more annoying by the day. What the hell's going on?"

Tony laughed, "You hit the nail on the head, Rhodey. JARVIS ran the security tapes, and nobody snuck into the house last night to off Selvig. It was an inside job, and the police cleared the staff."

"So it was one of your guests."

"Exactly."

"So you're going to do _what_?"

Pepper answered, "Call the police and inform them of the situation. With the current weather conditions, they probably won't be able to reach us today, so we are going to inform the guests and begin investigating ourselves."

"That's not exactly legal," Rhodey said resignedly. After being their closest friend for so many years, Pepper figured that he knew that there was no changing their collective mind after they had made it up.

"What other choice do we have?" Pepper asked. He was right, it wasn't legal, but Pepper couldn't exactly sit around and wait helplessly. If somebody wanted to sue, Stark Industries employed some of the best lawyers in the country. And she would deal with that if it came to it, not dwell on it right now.

Tony dialed the phone and put in on speaker in the silence that resulted after Pepper's question, and although it took two minutes to connect, the call went through.

Pepper spoke up and asked to speak to Sheriff Fury, explaining who she was.

After a moment, he said, "Potts? What is it?"

"Sheriff. Are you going to be able to come out today?"

"Not in this snow, sorry. Forecast says it's only going to get heavier here in town. We'll be out as soon as it clears up enough for us to run a snow plow out your way. Don't expect you'll be shoveling your driveway. Or your street, really."

"Sheriff Fury. I thought it would interest you to know that we have exterior security cameras, and that the footage has been reviewed. Nobody snuck into our house last night."

"There's always a margin for error on those things, Ms. Potts." He didn't sound interested, and Pepper nudged Tony's ribs.

"Yeah, maybe on someone else's design," Tony said, "But not _mine_. One of our guests offed the good doctor, and you'll forgive me if I say I'm not exactly feeling comfortable in my own home right now."

Fury didn't say anything for a long moment before he barked out a command to someone in the background. Then he turned his attention back to the phone call, "Look, Stark. We probably can't get out there now; I don't have a plow under my control at the moment, but I'll do my best. Whatever you do, don't tell your guests. It's safer for you all if the murderer doesn't know that he's under suspicion."

"Sure, sure." That was Tony's standard pacification technique, and she wondered if the sheriff noticed anything off about Tony's tone.

That wasn't as important as the fact that Pepper had noticed something in the sheriff's diatribe, though, and she asked, "Does that mean that Dr. Selvig was definitely murdered?"

"My men have confirmed that. Cause of death was a knife wound to the throat. And it was _n__ot_ self-inflicted, according to the angle."

"Thank you, Sheriff Fury," Pepper said. "Goodbye."

They hung up the phone call, and Rhodey looked at Tony. "Guess you aren't listening to him, then."

"Nope. They've got to have done something wrong, and I'm not about to sit around and wait for the police to come handle things. Besides, I've always wanted to play Holmes."

Pepper and Rhodey shared a look before she said, "Tony, this is serious business. A man is dead, and you can't go up there and laugh about it. _I _know humor is the way you deal with serious situations, but our guests don't know that. Okay?"

"Yes, Pep."

Rhodey said, "Do you two have a main suspect yet? Is there anybody I should be watching? We need to get a few things sorted out before we talk to anyone about this."

"Well, you didn't do it, Pep didn't do it, and I didn't do it. That's about all we know," Tony said.

"Everyone else is a suspect, then," Pepper said.

"Who else knows it was a suspected murder and not natural causes, Pepper?" Rhodey asked.

"Natasha and Peggy. But I would be hard pressed to believe it was either of them; they're both good friends of mine."

"I hope you're right about that, but it never hurts to be careful," Rhodey said.

"True. I think everyone else suspects that something's not right; the police were here for about three hours last night and that's not normal."

"You're right, Pepper. I think that, if we don't do anything else, we should officially let them know it was a murder."

"Yeah, yeah. Anything else, sweetheart?" Tony snarked at Rhodey. "Or can we go get started?"

Rhodey ignored Tony's sarcasm, instead asking, "Tony, do you have guns in this house?"

"Yeah, there's one in my desk upstairs and several in the trophy room."

"Ammunition?"

"Some in my office, and I don't know about the other guns. I don't really hunt, y'know."

"Well, let's go get those before we do anything else. You sure those are the only ones?"

"Positive. Right, Pep?"

"I don't know of any others, Rhodey. Are we going to invite everyone to help us look, or what? And what if someone doesn't want to?"

"Invite everyone," Tony said. "And if someone doesn't want to, then, uh, leave them in the kitchen to make sure no one steals a knife?"

"That's as good a plan as any," Rhodey sighed. "I wish you two would wait, for the record. But I know you're going to ignore me because Tony, you don't listen to anyone except yourself, and Pepper, you're worried about your guests." Both accusations were accurate, Pepper noted with a small smile.

"Your objection has been noted, and I will take all blame. Or, alternately, all responsibility," Tony said.

"Fine. Let's go move those guns down here before we do anything else. You have the only key, right?"

"Yeah, and J can keep anyone out, too."

"Sounds good."

They went upstairs and Pepper went into the living room to make sure that no one would observe Tony and Rhodey moving the guns, smiling pleasantly.

Then Tony and Rhodey came in and took seats; Pepper stood up.

"May I have your attention, please?"

Tony started to say something but she silenced him with a glare, and when the room was quiet, she continued.

"I just spoke with the sheriff, and due to the weather, it doesn't look like he and his men are going to be able to make it out today to talk to us. However, we have outdoor surveillance cameras set up and, after reviewing the footage from last night, we've discovered a disturbing fact. I should preface that by saying this, though. Dr. Foster, I'm sorry, but Dr. Selvig was murdered. Sheriff Fury just confirmed that on the phone. And we have determined that it was done by someone inside the house. The sheriff's men cleared the staff last night, which means it was one of us."

There was a collective hush as Jane gasped in a breath and clutched Darcy's hand. She started to cry a little, hunching her shoulders into herself until Thor put an arm around her and pulled her close and she turned her head into him, keeping her hand tucked in Darcy's.

Pepper wanted to comfort Jane, but she needed to be the one to say the next thing, not Tony who would doubtless forget to use tact.

So she said, "Since the police can't get out here today, we have decided that we will investigate ourselves. You are all invited to participate in our search, but if you would rather not, we ask that you remain out of our way. You have a right to refuse to have your possessions searched, but please be aware that this refusal will cast suspicions upon yourself and potentially your companions. Are there any questions?"

Nobody said anything, so Pepper asked, "Does anyone object to having their belongings searched?"

A few people shifted uncomfortably, but again, no one spoke up.

"Would anyone rather not participate?"

Again, there was no response; Jane wiped her face on the sleeve of her jacket and sat up straighter.

"Okay, we need to organize this. If anyone has any suggestions, we'd be glad to hear them."

After several seconds of silence, Steve said, "Everyone should work in pairs. If you can, try and work with someone you trust. That'll make things go easier."

"I agree," Peggy said briskly. "If there's any question about something, get a third opinion or a fourth. Nothing is too stupid, not with something like this." She shot a look at Pepper that clearly communicated that she was of a mind with Rhodey about this 'investigation,' but Pepper couldn't stop it now, even if she wanted to.

Natasha waited until it was clear that Peggy was done speaking, then she said, "The only rooms we used yesterday on this floor were the dining room, kitchen, living room, and foyer, so we shouldn't worry too much about the rooms in the back."

"Concentrate on the bedrooms," Sif suggested, surprisingly, a dark expression twisting her face. "Murderers usually make mistakes."

There was a moment of silence as Pepper tried to reconcile all those pieces of advice, and then Bucky said, "Uh, Ms. Potts, we probably need men and women's rooms searched by people of the same gender so things aren't...uncomfortable."

"Thank you for your suggestion, Bucky." Pepper walked over to the desk in the corner and quickly sketched out a rough map of the upstairs, carrying it over and depositing it on the coffee table. She had enough ideas to build a rough plan, and things continued to fall into place as she drew.

"If everyone will please indicate where their belongings currently are located, and if you have made a room change since you arrived. There will be no judgment," and she labeled her and Tony's bedroom neatly, setting the pen down.

It took a few moments of jostling, but the map was made, and Pepper bent over it, writing 'Sleeping Arrangements' in the upper corner and duplicating the structure of the rooms on another piece of paper, labeling that 'Searching Assignments.'

"If there are no objections, I will assign rooms for teams to search. Please pick a partner and stand far enough apart from each other that I can tell who's working with whom. Tony?"

"I'd be honored."

As the guests moved around, Pepper waited for calm before surveying the charts and partners in front of her.

Then she started, making notations as she went, "Clint and Natasha, if you two will take our room. Betty and Bruce, Thor and Jane's room, please." They nodded, and she went on, "Tony and I will take Betty and Bruce's room, and Rhodey and Peggy, if you will please take Natasha and Clint's room."

It went on until she had assigned people to whose room they were to search, and labeled the chart clearly.

"One of you is a murderer, and we plan to find who you are. And if you _dare_ harm another of my guests," Pepper ground out, "I will personally see to your prosecution."

With that said, she gestured to the door, letting her guests proceed upstairs ahead of her.

To Tony, she whispered, "If it was Bruce or Betty, I'll eat my hat, so let's be quick so we can keep an eye on the others, okay?"

"Sure thing, Pep. Let's get this done. And you don't _have_ a hat."

"I'll buy one just to eat it, Tony, so let's get started."

"I'd buy it to see that, but yes, ma'am."


	4. Don't know you any more

**My thanks to my beta, dysprositos, who went above and beyond on this chapter, and artist, taibhrigh, whose lovely art can be found at the link on my profile.**

**I'd like to reiterate that I don't know anything about police procedure. Sorry!**

**WARNINGS: Guns and asshole characters.**

* * *

Pepper sent Tony to search Bruce's things while she poked her head out of the door to make sure that everyone else was behaving as they were supposed to be.

After a few minutes, Tony said, "Unless the fact that Banner apparently forgot to bring socks is suspicious, he's clean. I'll supervise the kids, here," and came over to take Pepper's place at the door.

She searched Betty's bright green luggage and toiletries bag quickly, trying to be as impersonal as possible. Pepper saw nothing strange in her friend's belongings, so she quickly zipped the suitcase back up and stood it back on its side, putting it back where she had found it.

Then she picked up the two charts that she had brought upstairs and walked out into the hall, marking a check over Bruce and Betty's room.

Soon, people began trickling out of bedrooms and making their way over to her, confirming that they hadn't found anything suspicious.

Pepper marked them down on the chart, too, but hoped that she wasn't making a mistake by trusting their judgment. Ideally, she and Rhodey would have searched while everyone else waited downstairs, but she couldn't leave Tony alone with the guests for that long. For one thing, he'd be a prime target. And another, he was easily distracted, and wouldn't notice someone sneaking off if the murderer made an attempt to slip away.

When the crowd in the hall grew to six people total with the addition of Darcy and Jane, fresh from checking Peggy and Sif's room, Pepper knew that something had to be done about the rapidly filling hallway, so she suggested, "Why don't you all go downstairs? Tony, you go with them, I'll be fine up here. Everyone, please stay together."

It made her uncomfortable to suggest such a thing, but logically, she knew that she couldn't keep her guests standing in the hall forever. And Steve and Bucky were just joining the group, so she felt at least like they would be able to keep an eye on everyone. They were both former soldiers, so they had the skillset to babysit, at least. Besides that, Pepper seriously doubted that Steve Rogers, one of the kindest, most genuine men she had ever met, could be a murderer. And he probably had sense enough to not associate with one, either, which placed Bucky in her good books as well. And with them there, Tony would be okay.

So she sent that group of seven downstairs and waited alone in the hall.

If she had more sense, she figured, she should probably be scared, but Rhodey was a yell away and who would want to hurt her, just plain Pepper, anyway?

So she checked off the next pair, Clint and Natasha, glad that her own room had passed inspection, even though she had known there was nothing suspicious in there, and waited for Thor and Loki to join them before sending the foursome downstairs together to join Tony and the others.

Betty and Bruce and Volstagg and Fandral were next. Thor's two friends had cleared both Loki's and Steve's rooms, as they had been sleeping alone.

That left Rhodey and Peggy as the only other people upstairs besides Pepper, which made her uneasy. They were both thorough but competent, and should have been one of the first groups finished.

Pepper went to the doorway of Clint and Natasha's room, dreading what she would find. But they both seemed okay; Peggy was kneeling on the floor next to an open suitcase, Rhodey leaning over her shoulder and looking at something.

"What is it?" From this distance, Pepper couldn't tell what they were looking at or whose suitcase it was.

Rhodey turned to look at her, his eyes sad. "Pep, how well do you know that assistant of yours?"

"Natasha?"

"Close the door and come here," Peggy said, and numbly, Pepper did as she was told.

"See this blood?" Peggy held up what Pepper recognized as the white shirt Natasha had been wearing the day before, showing her the right cuff. There was a fine pattern of blood smeared across the outer edge, where the wearer would not have seen it.

"We both agree that couldn't have come from her; it originated on the outside of the shirt. She was wearing long pants and this shirt, and there's no blood anywhere else on it or on her pants."

"But couldn't it be someone else's blood? Clint's, maybe?"

"There's a bit of a splatter pattern, and she wouldn't get that from just sticking a bandaid on her boyfriend, Pep. Is she right or left-handed, do you know?" Rhodey was no-nonsense as always, and Pepper focused on his tone of voice and didn't let herself get caught up in the mess of thoughts circling around the fact that she had apparently employed a murderer for months.

Instead, she perched on the edge of the bed and thought back to Natasha in the office, seeing Natasha fill out forms and eat her lunch.

"Fairly close to ambidextrous, actually. I remember seeing her alternate hands."

"How long has she been working for you? I don't recall seeing her before about four months ago, when we were at that conference in London," Peggy asked.

"About six months now." Pepper could be pretty sure of the date because the man Natasha had replaced had retired in order to stay at home with his newborn child, and Pepper remembered going to see the family in the hospital at the end of May.

"Do you know what she did before she worked for you?" Rhodey asked, still calm.

"She worked for the government and came very well-recommended. They never said what she did, though. I suppose I just assumed." Pepper had a question of her own. "Did you check Clint's things?"

"I went through his things first," Rhodey said, calm, "And I didn't find anything. Colonel Carter here found this; I probably would have missed it."

"Nonsense. Pepper, we need to speak to this woman." Peggy stood, bundling the shirt carefully over her arm and shutting the top of Natasha's suitcase.

"Tony and I locked all the guns in the house in his workshop earlier," Rhodey said. "Colonel Carter and I will retrieve a couple, and Pepper, you go keep everyone calm. Say that I cut my hand on a broken piece of wood and Colonel Carter's helping me fix it up or something. Stay calm, it's all going to be okay. After we speak to her, we can call the sheriff back and tell him what we've found. I bet he'll get out here like a fire's been lit under him then."

"Thank you, Rhodey." Pepper laid a hand on his arm for a moment before she stood and smoothed a hand down her front, preparing herself to go face the music.

As she walked downstairs, she became aware of a murmur of discontented voices from the living room, Loki saying "—do we know we can trust her?" and Natasha's calm, even, "Ms. Potts is not a murderer, I can assure you of that."

A hysterical laugh bubbled in Pepper's chest, and she forced it down. How ironic, that Natasha was defending her when here she was, getting ready to throw Natasha under the bus?

But she had a job to do, so Pepper deliberately stepped on the creaky stair five up from the bottom of the staircase, silencing the voices, and proceeded into the living room.

She smiled and said, "Nobody found anything suspicious. I don't know what we were doing, really, trying to investigate by ourselves." She was lying through her teeth, but after so many years of half-truths and outright lies needing to be told for the good of the company, Pepper knew she was a good liar. It was one of the reasons she was so good at her job.

"Where are Colonel Rhodes and Peggy?" Steve asked, seeming concerned.

"Oh! I meant to say that first, I'm sorry. Rhodey—I mean Colonel Rhodes—hurt his hand on a loose floorboard and Peggy's helping him patch himself up. Tony, he says he's suing you, dear." Pepper made sure to keep her voice cheerful, carefree.

"I can afford a little lawsuit, I think," he smiled, but Pepper had known Tony for years, and Tony had known Pepper for the same length of time, and Pepper knew that Tony could tell something wasn't right with her.

Tony said something else light, keeping most people's attention was on him. Pepper suppressed the urge to stare at Natasha, who, she realized, had flown up on Tony's private plane with them and had thus not been subjected to a rigorous security screening at the airport.

When this was over, Pepper was taking a week off and dragging Tony somewhere warm and sunny and away from his workshop, and he was going to _enjoy_ it, damn it.

But for now she acted as though nothing was wrong and waited for Peggy and Rhodey.

Thirty seconds later, they stepped into the room, Rhodey pointing Tony's handgun directly at Natasha. "Hands up," he said, and her face shuttered off as she complied. Watching, Pepper could hardly believe that this was the same woman who had volunteered to work on weekends for no pay just because she said that Pepper had been working too hard and needed a break.

Peggy, slightly behind Rhodey and gripping a shotgun, aimed at Clint. "You too, Mr. Barton," she said crisply. "Everyone else, please remain seated."

"What's going on?" Clint asked. "I thought Ms. Potts said everything was okay?"

"Ms. Potts lied," Peggy said. "Pepper?" she jerked her chin at the shirt still draped over her arm, and as Pepper walked over and took it, Natasha began to laugh. It wasn't a nice sound.

"Tasha, what the hell? That's your shirt, isn't it?" Clint demanded, his voice rising.

"Yes, Mr. Barton, it is her shirt. We believe that your friend killed Dr. Selvig. There's blood on her sleeve that we are certain didn't come from her," Peggy answered.

Pepper had thought of something, and she added, "Ms. Romanoff was one of the last ones to come downstairs last night. At the time, I thought she was just rounding up stragglers, but now that doesn't seem to have been the case."

Clint looked at Peggy before sighing loudly. "Look, I didn't know anything about this, so can I please put my hands down?"

Peggy scrutinized him carefully before saying, "You may."

Clint lowered his hands, careful to keep them in Peggy's line of vision, Pepper noticed, and turned to Natasha.

Abruptly, he began, "What the hell, Natasha? Tell me the truth here. I thought you liked working for Ms. Potts. You said you were glad to be away from all...all _this_!"

"All what, Barton?" Tony asked, moving forward to insert himself in the discussion.

Clint sighed, running a hand through his short hair roughly. "We worked for the government in undercover ops for a good while. But I got hurt on a mission early this spring and I had to quit. Tasha stayed in for another month while I was in rehab, but she said it wasn't the same without me, and she quit too. We moved to New York together, and I thought she was handling the transition well." To Natasha, he said, "You seemed really happy with your job."

"You think that after all those years, I couldn't play you like a fiddle?" Natasha asked, more sad than angry, Pepper noted.

"I always knew you could, but I never thought you _would_, Nat. What the hell happened to you?"

"You know how you got hired at the first private security firm you applied to?"

Clint nodded.

"Well, do you know how many I applied to and was rejected from? Because I am a _woman_, not because I am any less skilled than you are. Nine, Clint. _Nine_. So I stopped trying, got in with Potts, and started taking a few contracts on the side. The job's got good mobility, and who'd ever suspect a _secretary_?"

"You should have said something. We could have done something. You know the agency has contacts, they could've gotten you a job. There was no need to become a _contract killer_, Nat. God, I don't even know you any more."

"I am not going to apologize for my actions, so let's just move on," Natasha said, turning slightly away from Clint.

He wasn't finished, though, and moved carefully over to Pepper, taking the shirt from her and inspecting it. Pivoting slowly to face Natasha, he said dully, "Got cocky, Tasha. The old you never would have left something this sloppy."

"I am _not_ the 'old me,' though, so that is irrelevant. Yes, I killed Dr. Selvig, and yes, I was paid well to do so. The man who hired me was not as clever as he'd like to think he was, though, I know I recognized his voice here." She paused before adding, "One should always conduct one's business online these days, much harder for your assets to identify you that way."

She crossed one leg primly over the other, keeping her hands in the air. Clint seemed devastated, his expression heartbroken. Silently, he handed the shirt back to Pepper and walked slowly across the room to retake his seat.

The room was silent for a moment before the words seemed to register with everyone and there was a flurry of heads turning. Pepper was not immune to the sudden panic and started doing a frantic head count, wondering who it could be.

Everyone was present and accounted for, and nobody moved, until Loki tipped back his head and started to laugh. It wasn't a pleasant laugh. "You expect us to take her word for it? She just admitted to killing a man, how do we know that she is not simply making up a story to turn our attention from her so that she can escape?"

"You have a good point, Mr. Odinson," Peggy said without taking her eyes off Natasha.

Natasha rolled her eyes, "Why would I lie? Obviously," she flicked the tips of her fingers at Rhodey and Peggy, "I'm not going anywhere. And the chaos and accusations that my observation is likely to produce will undoubtedly be hilarious."

"Natasha," Clint began, before sinking back into his chair, his head in his hands.

The room fell silent as people began glaring at each other accusingly, until Pepper stepped up to take charge.

"Is there anything that anyone wants to say before we have to begin this business all over again?"

Nobody gave themselves away, and Pepper sighed, planting a hand on her hip.

"We know that the person who hired Ms. Romanoff was male."

But before Pepper could carry that train of thought farther, Peggy moved closer to the door, and asked almost casually, "Mr. Odinson, hasn't your father's company been having difficulties lately?"

If Pepper didn't know Peggy well, she would have assumed that Peggy was changing the subject. Several of the guests had made that assumption, if the puzzled looks they were exchanging indicated anything.

But Pepper did know Peggy, so she stayed quiet and waited for the answer.

Thor looked at Loki, but Loki remained quiet, so Thor answered, "We have been having difficulties with our competition, Laufey and Co., but I fail to see how that is germane."

Pepper remembered hearing about this, and she began to see where Peggy was taking this idea. One of the reasons she had been pushing for a contract with Odinson and Sons was because they manufactured many of the raw materials Dr. Selvig had indicated he would need in his preliminary project proposals. That meant there was a connection between the Odinsons and Selvig, as Dr. Selvig's area of expertise was easy enough to ascertain, although the exact nature of his work with Stark Industries was classified. To support Peggy, Pepper said, "I believe I heard something about company secrets being leaked?"

Thor's lips compressed into a tight line. "I fail to see what this has to do with the situation at hand. What goes on at Odinson and Sons has nothing to do with the fact that your assassin has pointed out that the man who hired her is currently in this room!"

If Thor wasn't getting the connection, then it was time for a change in tactics. Shooting Peggy a quick look to communicate the impending change in subject, Pepper said soothingly, "Mr. Odinson, you have the largest party of males with you. That seems a cause for suspicion. If we are to begin examining all the males for possible motives in order to see if they are Ms. Romanoff's employer, it seems logical that we begin with your group."

Thor seemed on the edge of becoming angry, but he closed his eyes and visibly took several deep breaths before responding. "It does, yes. I can only speak for myself, but I have had no contact with Ms. Romanoff. I have no reason to wish Dr. Selvig dead, in fact, if he was to live, I believe that would have been better for business."

"It would have been," Pepper confirmed, glad to see that Thor knew about the connection between her interest in his father's company and Dr. Selvig's work, before turning to the others. "Well, gentleman?"

"We do not work for Odinson and Sons," Sif said, speaking for herself and the three men. That was odd, Pepper thought, as she had specifically mentioned examining the men's motives, and Sif was female, but from what Pepper had observed of the foursome, they seemed extremely close, so it was natural that Sif would spring to her friends' defense. "So we are not involved in this business. We are simply childhood friends of Thor's."

That seemed logical enough, and Pepper turned to Loki. "Mr. Odinson?"

Loki's face remained carefully blank until he began speaking, when a nasty expression twisted his lips and pulled his eyebrows down. "Please, as if I would wish to harm my dear father's business by having a potential customer murdered." He could not keep the venom out of his voice, and Pepper noted Thor looking at his brother strangely, taking in Loki's expression.

Thor was better at hiding his emotions, showing little reaction to Loki's negativity, and simply said, "Loki, brother, what do you mean by that? I understand that these accusations are ill-deserved, but I fail to see how responding with vitriol will ease the situation."

Loki actually turned around rather than reply, and that was when Pepper realized that something was very wrong here.

She didn't have enough evidence to make an accusation yet, though, so she turned to Bruce, sitting next to Betty on a loveseat, and asked, "Bruce, what do you have to say about this?"

"Erik Selvig was one of the advisors on my PhD project, and we became friends after that was completed," he said. "We haven't seen each other in a few years, but I don't have any reason to want him dead. I didn't even know he was working for Stark Industries until Betty got her invitation."

"Thank you, Bruce," Pepper said, turning to move on.

"You are going to accept that? How do you know this man is not lying through his teeth?"

"Because Bruce wouldn't kill another man. He isn't capable of that," Betty said calmly, and Pepper was thankful for her friend's level head. She doubted that she could be so calm if it was Tony who was so rudely slandered.

"Mr. Odinson," Pepper said, "If you have something to say, then please come out and say it rather than making seemingly blameless accusations."

Loki crossed his arms over his chest and took a seat, and Pepper continued the questioning, speaking to Tony and Rhodey, both of whom denied having any sort of motive.

She considered asking Clint next, but he seemed almost on the verge of tears, staring at Natasha, his attention totally on her and not on the ongoing conversation, and she figured that the poor man deserved a break.

So she moved onto Steve and Bucky, asking them about their possible motive. They both answered negatively—Pepper hadn't thought it was either of them for a second—and she was getting ready to move onto another tactic. This one obviously wasn't going to work, since she'd spoken to all but one of the men (and one look at Clint's face assured her that he had nothing to do with this) and they had all denied having a motive.

Loki spoke up before she could, though, sneering something about how two such men who obviously had money but no jobs (he must have overheard that in a conversation somewhere; Pepper didn't know how he knew that, otherwise), would have enough disposable income with which to hire an assassin.

At this point, Pepper was fed up. "Mr. Odinson. Neither Steve nor Bucky, no offense, gentlemen, has the know-how necessary to get any sort of benefit from Dr. Selvig's death. Given your comments, at this point I have little other choice than to assume that you are throwing around accusations in order to keep the finger of blame off yourself. So, Peggy, please place Mr. Odinson with Ms. Romanoff, and I will call Sheriff Fury."

As soon as she was done, Thor yelled, "Loki?" and stood up.

Thor got in Loki's face rather that Pepper's, which surprised her. He said, "Brother, is this true? Are you attempting to divert blame from yourself?"

Loki spat, "I am _not_ your damn brother. Your miserable excuse for a father lied."

Thor was dumbfounded, and he stood quietly by as Peggy moved over to Loki, her shotgun held threateningly.

Loki was silent for a brief moment before he chided, "Really, Thor? I would have expected better from you. One mention of the fact I am adopted and you throw me to the wolves without a second glance."

"It is not because you say you are adopted, Loki," Thor explained with rather more patience than Pepper thought the situation deserved, "But that you have yet to deny taking out a hit on Dr. Selvig."

In the silence that followed that declaration, Steve arranged two chairs against an empty wall under Rhodey's direction, and Bucky stepped up to take the handgun from Rhodey, pointing it almost lazily at Natasha. Watching him, Pepper understood that was an illusion.

Rhodey and Steve told Natasha to stand up, and Peggy shooed Loki across the room to join her. They were shepherded into the indicated chairs after being patted down (Clint stepped forward to search Natasha and although Peggy supervised this closely, no one stopped him), and Pepper felt her guests gather back behind her as she faced them.

Rhodey's hand was still around Loki's wrist after patting him down, and Loki spat, "Unhand me at once. I demand to be allowed to call my lawyer."

Rhodey ignored Loki's first demand, but addressed his second, saying, "There's only one working phone at the moment, so as soon as we call the sheriff, you may, Mr. Odinson." Turning to Natasha, he asked, "Is this the man who hired you?"

She inspected her nails with an air of boredom. "He is."

"You miserable woman," Loki hissed, but he was cut off by Thor's booming, "Enough!"

At a more reasonable volume, Thor continued, "Keep your vitriol to yourself, Loki. What were you trying to accomplish by having this Dr. Selvig assassinated?"

"I have not yet admitted any such thing. As I stated before, how do you know that this assassin is telling the truth? She could be lying for her own amusement!"

Thor sighed, "Loki, you forget how well I know you. And although you like to think that your lies fool me, I have known how to determine if you were lying since we were boys. Now, please, tell me the truth. What is your reasoning for having Dr. Selvig assassinated?"

Loki rolled his eyes, but said, "I am the person who has been providing your father's secrets to Laufey and Co. After lying to me for so many years, he no longer deserves my loyalty."

He smiled brightly, giving that a moment to sink in before continuing, "Laufey doubted the strength of my hatred, however, believing that it could not be enough to sustain what quickly became a great source of information for his company, and gave me a test to complete. Dr. Selvig is dead, meaning that a candidate of his choosing is likely to get the position at Ms. Potts's company, so I passed his test, with, as you say, flying colors. It was not my intention to find myself in the same house as my assassin and the dead man, though. I do not understand how this happened; I instructed that he was to be killed in his place of residence."

Pepper made a mental note in flashing neon colors, bolded and italicized, about _carefully_ screening the new candidates, before she returned her attention to the matters at hand. She would worry about that later.

Thor cursed under his breath in his native language, before turning to Jane with a heartbroken expression. "I am so sorry, Jane."

She nodded, her hands clutched together in front of her. Darcy slid an arm around her boss's shoulders, and Pepper left them be. She would talk to Jane later, but she needed to focus on the business at hand now.

To Loki, Thor said, "I had so hoped that you weren't behind the leak. Internal Affairs has been investigating you for the last two weeks, Loki, it is one of the reasons I was asked to bring you to America with me."

Loki's only answer was to roll his eyes again. Pepper waited a minute to see if anyone else had anything to say before asking lightly, "Does anyone _else_ have anything to confess? No more assassins in our midst, I hope?"

There were a few nervous chuckles, but nobody spoke up. That suited Pepper just fine, and she took a deep breath and faced Loki and Natasha. "Loki Odinson, Natasha Romanoff, I am making a citizens' arrest."

"On what grounds?" Loki sneered.

"Having collaborated to murder Dr. Erik Selvig. And his actual murder, of course." Rather than give Loki the chance to continue making rude comments, she pulled the phone out of her pocket and held it up.

"I'm going to contact Sheriff Fury now, so I would appreciate it if everyone was quiet," she said, dialing the number.

It took less time for the call to connect now, and she was put through to Fury as soon as she identified herself.

"What is it now, Potts?"

"Sheriff Fury, we decided that we couldn't sit around and wait for you to acquire a snowplow, so we investigated ourselves."

"This ought to be good," he scoffed. "You _do_ know that's illegal."

"I do, and I will be prepared to answer for that at a later time. But, Sheriff Fury, we have your murderer and the man who hired her right here, waiting to be picked up." Pepper hesitated before adding a very Tony-esque, "You're welcome."

"Jesus Christ," he said, and then clapped a hand to the phone to yell something.

"Okay, Ms. Potts, we're getting that damn plow and we'll be out there within two hours. There's two of them, you said?"

"Yes. And the assassin is a former government agent, while the man who hired her is a foreign citizen."

"Thank you for letting us know, Ms. Potts. Even if I don't like the fact that you broke the law to find this out."

"We did what we had to, Sheriff Fury. See you soon."

No sooner had she hung up the phone than Loki was demanding, "My lawyer?"

Rhodey took the phone from her and moved closer to Loki, hashing out that issue.

Natasha still seemed bored with the goings-on around her, and Pepper looked at her sadly. Natasha caught her looking and sneered, an expression that seemed like it would be more at home on Loki's face than hers.

Pepper closed her eyes for a moment, gathering herself.

Then she said, "We don't all need to be in here, I'm sure. If I can get some help, it's almost lunchtime. Why don't some of us go take care of that?"

She led a small group out of the living room and into the kitchen, where Betty stepped up and volunteered to manage getting lunch on the table.

Pepper gratefully accepted and drew Jane and Darcy to the side. "I'm so, so sorry, Jane. Is there anything I can do?"

"No, but thank you. It wasn't your fault, Pepper. But why Erik?"

Pepper thought she might know, and since he was dead, she didn't think there would be much harm in telling Jane and Darcy. Neither of them had much contact with foreign companies, and Jane's surprise at seeing Thor in America had been genuine. "He wasn't able to tell you much about his new contract, was he? There was a secrecy clause."

"Yeah, that's what he said."

"The government has obtained a new power source that is believed to have originated in outer space, and they contracted Stark Industries to study it. Dr. Selvig was hired to run that project. You understand that you cannot tell anyone else this, right?"

They both agreed, and Pepper continued, "My guess is that this Laufey and Co. is affiliated with an unfriendly government who does not want us to have this power. Or they were hoping to steal the power source. I can't be sure, though." That was something she would need to find out, as well as ascertain that this project wouldn't lead to any more nasty surprises.

Jane's shoulders slumped minutely, but she put a small smile on her face and said, "That's enough. Thank you. You'll be needing a new team leader, now, won't you?"

"We will, yes."

"Please put me on the list of possible candidates. Erik and I have—well, had—different specialties, but they were closely related enough that I think I can pick up where he left off."

Pepper had been considering just that, so she smiled. "I most certainly can put you on the list, although I can't make any promises. Now, I'm going to go see about lunch. I understand if you want to go have some time on your own."

Darcy studied Jane's face for a moment before deciding for the two of them. "We'll come in with you."

They went into the kitchen and fixed lunch, and got everyone fed, even Loki and Natasha.

If it had been up to Pepper, though, she might not have given them food. Or at least made them wait for it. But that was petty and small of her, so she just stayed out of the room and their way.

Out of sight, out of mind, right?

But Pepper didn't think that would work for her. She was responsible for bringing an assassin to Tony's home, _her_ home, and that assassin had killed a man.

That was on Pepper's conscience now.

* * *

But she didn't have the time to worry about that just then because Sheriff Fury and his men arrived within an hour, just as Pepper and a few helpers were washing the lunch dishes. Someone had politely suggested that Pepper go sit down and relax for a minute, but she needed to do _something_ or she would worry herself to pieces, so she had joined the few people working in the kitchen, washing the dishes by hand since the dishwasher was full.

So when Tony reported that cars were following a snow plow up the drive, Pepper dried her hands, thanked the others, and met him at the front door, leading Sheriff Fury and his men to the living room where Rhodey, Peggy, and several other people were guarding Natasha and Loki.

Deputy Hill stepped forward and began reciting the Miranda Rights as Natasha and Loki were handcuffed, and Pepper stepped out of the room.

Tony was hovering in the hall, having left the room before she did, and she dropped her head on his shoulder for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. He seemed to know what she needed, and simply rubbed her back, shifting slightly to pull her closer to him.

Rhodey stuck his head out of the living room to ask, "Can one of you go get the flash drive I asked JARVIS about earlier? He'll know what I mean."

"I'll go," Tony said, easing away from Pepper.

Betty stepped forward from where she had been hovering back out of the way and took Pepper's elbow. She tugged Pepper into the empty dining room and shut the door, looking Pepper seriously in the face. Pepper allowed herself to be led, unsure what was going on until Betty said, "Pepper, you know that this had nothing to do with you, right?"

Pepper faked a laugh. "Of course I do! Why would you think that?"

"Because you're thinking it, Pepper. And you're my friend, and I'm worried about you."

"Thank you, Betty. It just feels like it's my fault, you know? I hired Natasha, hell, I _invited_ her here!"

"How could you know? Your job is to run Stark Industries, not babysit your employees. Natasha is a grown woman, and she can make her own choices. She is _responsible_ for making her own decisions. This situation is her fault, _not _yours, and not the fault of the people who wouldn't hire her. It is possibly the fault of her former employer for letting an agent of her caliber out into the world without a comprehensive psychological screening, but that's _it_."

Pepper slumped a little. She had _known_ that, but hearing it from another person made it feel real. Checking to make sure the door was still shut, she admitted, "I needed to hear that, Betty. Thanks."

"This isn't on your shoulders, just remember that. And if you want to talk, well, you have my number. Call me, Pepper. You don't have to do this alone. No offense to Tony, but he's not used to dealing with this. Bruce doesn't like to talk about it, but he's got survivor's guilt from back when his mother died. This isn't exactly the same situation, but I do have some experience in the area."

"I really appreciate the offer, Betty. I'll probably take you up on it."

"You do that."

Pepper hugged Betty gently and then squared her shoulders and walked back into the living room.

She caught the tail end of what Fury was saying, "—back to the station. I'll bring the brother and Barton once I finish getting statements from everyone here."

"Yes, sir," Hill said, and then she and several other deputies were walking Loki and Natasha out of the room, Natasha's shirt sealed in an evidence bag under her arm. Pepper was glad to have them out of the house, her house.

Tony came into the room and handed Rhodey a flash drive, whispering something in his ear.

Rhodey walked over to Fury, Tony following, and said, "Tony has a smart house of sorts, and he's had a copy of their respective confessions made for you. Here," he passed the thumb drive over.

Fury raised an eyebrow, taking it. "A 'smart house,' huh? I'm not even gonna get into that."

Pepper noted the relief on Tony's face; he was quite protective of JARVIS.

Fury continued, "Thank you, Colonel. Stark, we need to start taking statements from your guests. Colonels Carter and Rhodes first, since they were the most involved in this discovery, but then you and Ms. Potts."

"Okay, great. Uh, do you want to use the dining room? I don't think anyone's in there right now..."

Pepper rolled her eyes fondly and stepped forward, "The dining room is empty, Sheriff Fury. Right this way," and she nudged Tony in the ribs as she passed.

Sheriff Fury and two of his men took Rhodey into the dining room, leaving Peggy outside with Pepper and Tony, who had followed along behind them and dug an elbow gently into Pepper's ribs in an echo of her earlier teasing movement.

Pepper waited with them until Rhodey came out and sent Peggy in, explaining, "Fury wants to see the four of us himself, but then he's going to set up a Deputy, uh, Coulson, to take statements, too, so we aren't here forever."

"That sounds like a good idea. Deputy Coulson can use Tony's office," Pepper said. "I'll just go tell the guests. And I should probably start working on travel arrangements for them, too. I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to stick around."

"Check with Fury before you finalize anything, Pep," Rhodey advised.

"I will."

Pepper left him there with Tony and moved around the first floor, taking a headcount again (everyone was there) and passing on the news about the statements.

Betty gave her a reassuring smile when Pepper came to speak to her, Bruce, and Jane, who were wrapped up in a discussion of something about their work.

When Pepper went back to the dining room doors, Tony was inside and Peggy and Rhodey were waiting outside for her.

Peggy said, "I'm going to go upstairs for a bit, Pepper. Rhodes told me about your plan to offer travel arrangements to the guests, but I'll stick around for as long as you need me, so don't make any for me."

"Thanks, Peggy. I appreciate that."

Peggy grinned, "I took a week off work to come to New York; I'm damn well going to enjoy it."

Pepper could understand that.

Soon, Tony came out and Pepper went in. She gave her statement, keeping things on a need-to-know basis and omitting as much information about JARVIS as possible. Tony preferred that as few people knew about JARVIS's existence as possible; he didn't want JARVIS to be taken from them.

An AI was a scary prospect, and Pepper could understand that. True to his earlier statement about not poking into Tony's 'smart house,' Fury took her statements at face value, not asking anything about JARVIS beyond what she provided, and she was grateful for that.

Fury had plenty of other questions, but it didn't feel like Pepper was sitting there for long.

She went out with Coulson, who snagged both Steve and another of the deputies milling around. Pepper led the group to Tony's office, shutting the door behind them and going out to organize the guests into two groups.

She set up one line outside the office and another outside the dining room, and then went to sit down for a moment. Tony had disappeared along with Rhodey; they had probably gone down to his workshop for some male bonding time, and Pepper didn't want to interrupt that.

She had asked Fury about sending the guests home after she had finished giving her statement, and he had agreed that they could all go home, although he reserved the right to change his mind if need be.

So she took out her tablet and started searching for flight information, preparing to send most of the guests home.

There weren't any flights out of town due to the weather, but when she looked out the window, she saw that it had stopped snowing completely. The airport's website predicted that flights would be up in about an hour if the weather held, so Pepper found temporary arrangements for everyone except Peggy, Rhodey, Tony, and herself, and then went to go find the guests to see who wanted to go home.

As it turned out, everyone wanted to go except for Betty, Bruce, Steve, and Bucky. Pepper had guessed that Betty and Bruce would be sticking around after her earlier conversation with Betty, but she hadn't thought that Steve and Bucky would have stayed.

But then again, she had seen how Steve looked at Peggy, and Bucky seemed like a loyal best friend, so it wasn't terribly surprising.

While she was waiting, she drafted and sent an email to the employment company from which she had hired the cooks and wait staff for the dinner that already felt like so long ago, explaining the situation. With that done, she felt marginally better and returned to the guests to finalize the travel plans of the ones who had been cleared to go home.

Fury wrapped up in about three hours and didn't need anyone to stick around, so Pepper drove one group of the guests to the airport herself; Rhodey had volunteered to drive the other group.

Clint and Thor were going to stay in town closer to the jail, and Pepper dropped them at the small hotel on her way to the airport, swinging by a pizza place as well and putting in her order.

She picked up the pizzas after letting Jane and Darcy off at the main entrance of the airport and headed back home, glad that the day was almost over.

* * *

Too tired to want to keep playing hostess, Pepper made it known that pizza was in the kitchen and then retreated down to Tony's workshop, curling up on the beat-up couch he kept in there, her tablet at her side but her head resting on her arms for the moment.

Tony brought her a couple slices of pizza on a paper plate and a bottle of wine to share, seeming worried.

"I'm okay," she said before he could ask, uncurling to take the food and wine glass from him. "I just can't help but think that I'm responsible for bringing Natasha here, even though I know intellectually that I'm not."

"There's a difference between knowing something and _knowing_ something, isn't there?" he asked.

Figuring it was a rhetorical question, Pepper turned her attention to her pizza instead, and Tony was quiet for a few minutes before he said, "If there's anything I can do to make you feel better, tell me, okay, Pep?"

"I will, Tony. Right now I want to review my personnel files to make sure I'm not harboring any more criminals. And then I want to go to bed and not worry about the dishes or anything else like that."

"Rogers can do the dishes," Tony suggested generously. "He told me he and Barnes did them last night when I was getting our pizza."

"That was nice of him," Pepper said, more focused on the tablet in her lap than what Tony was saying.

He came over to kiss the top of her head, resting a hand on her shoulder for a minute, and then went to his own workstation, turning his music on at a respectable volume for a moment before switching it to what she preferred without her even needing to ask.

After Pepper was satisfied that there were no suspicious holes in any of her other employees' backgrounds, she said, "I'm going to bed, Tony."

She picked up her wineglass and the trash from her pizza and headed for the door.

Tony caught up to her and tugged those out of her hands, saying, "You go on up and I'll be there in a minute."

"Thank you, Tony."

"Not a problem, dear."

After she'd gotten into her pajamas and gotten into bed, she told Tony, who had come in just as she was finishing up in the bathroom, seriously, "We're going on vacation. Somewhere sunny."

"No work allowed?" he asked.

"Yeah. Just you and me."

"Sounds like a good plan. Sure you don't want me to buy you that island we talked about last year, though?"

"_No_ island, Tony. Goodnight."


	5. Getting through and moving on

**And finally, an enormous thank you to both my amazing beta, dysprositos, and artist, taibhrigh, whose art can be found at the link on my profile.**

**Warning for an unbelievably cheesy ending?**

* * *

Pepper got through the rest of the weekend, got through explaining to her other employees what had happened, got through the inevitable drop in Stark Industries' stock when word of what had happened got out, got through hiring Jane Foster to replace Dr. Selvig after a lengthy and meticulous search for another candidate who was not in fact working for Laufey and Co. because, as it turned out, two were.

She even got through the tough negotiations with Odin himself, who personally flew into town to make the deal between Stark Industries and Odinson and Sons. Apparently, Odin's last name was not 'Odinson' but a patronymic. The 'Odinson' was taken from an ancestor who had started the company, whom Odin was named after. He'd explained this over celebratory coffee after the deal was signed, and Pepper had to force herself to stay involved in the conversation, so sick of Odinsons or not-Odinsons was she.

Still, she did it. And then she got through the long wait while evidence of the other murders Natasha was responsible for was gathered, got through the quick hush-up of any involvement on the part of Laufey and Co. She'd screamed herself hoarse over that one; Tony had taken one look at her face and guided her gently down to the boxing ring in the gym and had allowed her to wail on his upraised hands in their thick gloves for what felt like hours.

She got through it, though, and she got through the long conversation with Sheriff Fury, who had undertaken a search of the house for the murder weapon the day after Natasha and Loki had been taken into custody, when Pepper had bundled everyone who was still there into the jet and taken them home to Stark Tower in New York.

He had found the murder weapon hidden in a back room on the first floor, one of those rooms that Natasha had suggested they shouldn't search, and Pepper had been too accustomed to hearing about Natasha's lies to give much of a reaction to that. It seemed as if that, along with the confession Natasha had dutifully repeated after a visit from her lawyer and a long nonverbal conversation with Clint through the glass of the observation room at the jail, would do to put Natasha, at least, away.

Loki, on the other hand, was more difficult to pin down, although Pepper knew for a fact that both she and Peggy had been using their international connections to collect evidence against him. He simply refused to cooperate, and no amount of pleading on Thor's part would sway him.

Fury reported that they were being moved to a more secure facility, although it seemed likely that Loki would get out on bail sometime soon, and the investigation was being taken over by the FBI. He sounded relieved to be rid of it, which was entirely unsurprising to Pepper.

Between things he said and things she heard from Stark Industries' legal department, it didn't appear as though they were being sued. Pepper felt sure that Loki would be suing if it wasn't for Odin and Thor, who were both opposed to the idea. That was a worry, just another one to add to Pepper's list.

But Pepper got through all of this, every single reminder of how that weekend had gone wrong, and although it was exhausting, it was essentially what she had expected to happen.

What she wasn't expecting, though, was a visit from Clint Barton.

He showed up at her office one day, and asked to speak with her. Pepper had been in a meeting when he arrived, and he'd had to wait.

But she hurried through it so that she could talk to him, not entirely comfortable but not wanting to send him away, either.

He took a seat across from her desk and said, "Look, I can't apologize for Natasha. But I am sorry for my own sake. Wasn't being very attentive, letting her get away with this under my own nose. And I hate that you got dragged into it, Ms. Potts. You seem like good people, and it wasn't fair for Tasha to drag you into this."

"Life isn't fair, Mr. Barton," Pepper said crisply. "But thank you for coming. How are you holding up?" She could see dark circles under his eyes.

"I'll get through it, don't worry about me. I, uh, I don't really know what I was trying to accomplish by coming here, but I did want to apologize."

"Well, I appreciate that. I'm sorry that Natasha felt she had no other choice than this."

"Me too." He stood. "Uh, I suppose I'll be seeing you in court soon."

"I'll be there." Pepper smiled, and Clint took his leave of her and left the office.

She and Tony went on vacation that evening, and she kept her phone turned off for a whole week.

When she got back, there was a pile of work to be done, but she had a new ring on her left hand and an invitation in the mail to Betty and Bruce's wedding, so she had that to look forward to.

And the next time Steve came by for a weapons testing session, Pepper popped down to see him briefly and he was smiling to himself so much that Pepper had to ask what was going on. Although he was a cheerful guy, he wasn't ever _that_ cheerful.

He told her that he and Peggy had started emailing regularly, and that it looked good. And he said that Bucky was keeping in touch with Darcy, even planning to go visit her next month. Darcy told Bucky, who told Steve, who told Pepper, that Jane was going to see Thor when she came to New York to testify at the trial, and that she didn't hold his brother's actions against him. From what Pepper had heard, Thor and his friends had been staying in New York since Loki wasn't allowed to leave the state or country.

Steve explained that apparently Thor and Jane had met in college when he was an exchange student but had lost touch when he had gone back home, so Pepper's party had been an opportunity to reconnect for not just himself and Peggy, but them as well.

Pepper gradually was able to let go of the idea that she was responsible for Natasha's actions, and a conversation with Natasha herself went a long way towards doing that. Natasha was distant and disdainful, completely unlike how she had been when she worked for Pepper, and that showed how good of an actor the former agent was.

Going in, Pepper hadn't expected to see the kind, competent woman who had worked for her, but the rude, sneering woman who had taken her place was nonetheless shocking. Pepper wondered if Natasha was like this all the time under the surface, or if this was some sort of defense mechanism. She couldn't see Clint being close with Natasha if she was always like this, but that was none of her business, so she got through the brief conversation and left the building, glad to have terminated that relationship.

That evening, she called Betty for what would become the first of many long chats. Betty was a good listener and more patient than Tony, who did his best to be there for Pepper but had as many commitments as Pepper did these days.

Life went on, and Pepper went on with it.

* * *

**So, what did y'all think? This was my first go at writing a mystery, and I hope I did okay!**


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